If you’re worried about getting left behind, it’s okay! There’s still time, and the sooner you get your mobile presence in working order, the better. Here are three steps you can take to achieve mobile SEO success:
Over the next twelve months, Google will be rolling out their mobile-first index, and eventually moving it to be their primary algorithm for search engine results. What does this mean? The short version is that if your brand isn’t presenting well on mobile devices, your SEO campaign is hobbled.
This development shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone – after all, over 60% of search engine queries are submitted on mobile devices. That number is only growing as mobile devices, apps and friendly websites become more robust, useful and affordable. The effect of this is that brands must migrate to where their customers are. Just as you wouldn’t pick a brick-and-mortar location that wasn’t popular with your audience, if you ignore mobile marketing and advertising, your customers will pass you by in favor of more available and visible brands. This applies to every industry, from the more obvious e-commerce brands to lawyers and safety training companies.
If you’re worried about getting left behind, it’s okay! There’s still time, and the sooner you get your mobile presence in working order, the better. Here are three steps you can take to achieve mobile SEO success:
Make Sure Your Brand Is Represented Accurately
When new technology takes center stage, it’s easy to give into the temptation to only invest at the bare minimum and assume your audience is still happy with your previous level of technology. After all, they seemed content before, right? However, it’s important to invest in mobile marketing and advertising at the same level you invest in web – if not more – as your mobile presence will increasingly determine if new customers can find your brand.
There are many tools available that will help you convert your existing website to mobile-friendly, or make simple apps, and these tools are great solutions for many brands. If you’d like your customers to submit payment over mobile, or are targeting Gen Z, however, it’s likely wise for you to invest in a more robust and impressive solution.
Make Sure You Understand The New Requirements
As you go about setting up your mobile presence, make sure that you’re taking notes on all the new requirements – or else all your effort and money will be wasted.
The new requirements and suggestions by Google are:
- Include structured data – If you already have a mobile presence, it’s likely that you’ve omitted markup language, as it improves the speed at which your page loads. However, Google will need this information to properly rank your page, so put the necessary segments This is by far the most technical piece, so don’t hesitate to hire an SEO advisor or tech lead to make sure it’s done correctly.
- Publish consistent content – Make sure that the content that you push to your mobile sites and apps are, for the most part, consistent with your website. Fight the urge to cut text short unless it truly serves to optimize the experience. If the page seems overwhelming, consider accordion folders and tabs to break it up a bit, as Google is reversing their decision to only give partial weight to content that’s hidden on mobile.
- Don’t obstruct the user view – If you have a full-screen popup on mobile, Google will penalize you. Make sure that your site is as easy to use on mobile as it is in a standard web browser.
Know What Keywords Your Audience Uses On Mobile
While you’re likely targeting the same audience on mobile as you are on a desktop, it’s important to understand that they won’t be searching for the same things when they’re on the go as when they’re sitting at a computer.
This is especially critical for local SEO, or any location-based query targets. It’s also relevant to pay attention to contextual changes to your search terms. For example, a query in January of 2016 for “Trump” would be much more likely to be looking for Trump brand items, the hotel chain or Trump University. In January 2017, almost all of those queries would have the intent of finding news about President Trump.
As you migrate your brand to mobile, ensure that the experience you’re providing is at least comparable to that which you offer on a desktop. If you’re looking to really catapult your profit margins in 2017, optimize your mobile presence to provide the best user experience
Source: 3 Steps For Mobile SEO Success
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