Tips to Optimize Your Mobile Site for Search Engine

Undoubtedly, mobile devices have climbed ahead of computers. Today, more mobile devices are being sold as compared to desktops and laptops, and mobile phones would likely contribute to most of the total traffic to the website. In fact, mobile phones have already crossed that threshold for many sites and businesses. This certainly makes us think if we have a mobile-friendly website that can drive traffic to your website. Moreover, we ought to make absolutely sure that our mobile website is optimized for Google searches which can be done through mobile SEO.

What is Mobile SEO?

Mobile Search Engine Optimization (Mobile SEO) is the technique of optimizing the website for search engine traffic from mobile devices. This is a form of search engine optimization (SEO) method that makes a website rank for mobile searches.

Mobile SEO Best Practices

Nearly, half of the people do not search beyond the first page of the Google search. If your mobile site isn’t at the forefront, users are going to look for alternative sites to visit. You can either use SEO services offered by renown companies or follow these few simple ways to boost the appeal of your website to mobile users, eventually increasing your mobile traffic.

Make a Responsive Website

A mobile responsive website is a mobile-friendly web design that automatically adjusts to the size of the device being used. It immediately presents the right design and changes the content to accommodate the screen perfectly. As a result, website visitors get to navigate the entire website from their mobile devices without zoom in and out or scrolling side to side. They would get the same view of the website just as they would on a desktop computer. Responsiveness is one major contributor to getting to the top ranking on search engine results. Since most of your potential mobile customers use a search engine, you must consider gaining the top position in search results. Besides, responsiveness spares your valuable time if it comes to updating your website. It is certainly much easier to update a website than to work on separate versions.

Test Your Site

It’s always wise to examine what you already have on the plate. Test and analyze how your website deals with mobile-friendliness. This will help you focus on particular areas of your website that will need improvement, and provide you with useful data about how you can make some changes.

You can do it by simply browsing your website on different devices and see how it looks; whether the content is readable, if the navigation is simple or how user-friendly the overall web experience is. You can analyze the loading times and see how your website design fits the different screens. Another way to dig deeper is by using tools like the one Google has offered for free which will tell you if your website meets the mobile page standards.

Enable AMP

Google has launched Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to make surfing a smooth experience. In simpler words, AMP is a method of creating a mobile-friendly version of your website which is done through stripping of content and removing unnecessary files and advanced layouts. These AMP versions will then be used by those who browse the site using a mobile device.

AMP has become a huge success and has been implemented by many sites to ensure that mobile versions of websites perform efficiently. Although it is time-consuming, it’s worth it in the long run.

Make Swift Navigation

Users tend to stay more on your website if the navigation is swift and clear. Try analyzing your mobile user behavior and identify what they mostly look for on your website and customize your navigation putting their requirement on top. Keep your mobile navigation easy to use, tidy and simple and try limiting the major pages between 4-8.

Improve Website Speed

Site speed matters the most. So, the first step is to speed up the loading times. According to Google,

‘53% of visits are abandoned if sites take more than 3 seconds to load’

Thus, half of your visitors are expecting pages to be loaded in 1-2 seconds. So, you can’t get away around with the speed of the web site. A good resource is to use Google’s mobile speed test to determine if there are any speed factors involved.

Some frequently suggested improvements typically include:

Compressing images because huge image files can slow down the web
Combining or minimizing code to cut down on the number of page requests
Use caching to display pages more quickly

Exclude Pop-Ups

Pop-ups can be extremely frustrating at times and the possibility is, they might lead to a high bounce rate. Your ranking will be adversely affected if you have pop-ups that interrupt your user experience.

Using pop-ups won’t necessarily make or hinder your Google search results performance. There have been a number of elements that are being taken into account in the Google algorithm.

However, when Google advises you that this is making particular adjustments to its algorithm, it’d be better to follow its advice. Now, get rid of the pop-ups.

Utilize SMM

Millions of people are currently using social media around the world. Social media gets the second position when it comes to the volume of mobile traffic. As a result, it’s a good idea to use social media marketing to help your mobile website traffic skyrocket.

If you really want to increase the pool of potential customers, you need to take measures to be easily spotted. Try and ensure all your social media accounts include mobile URLs so people can tap or bookmark for future visits later.

It is, therefore, important that you must have buttons to like and post your social media content on key pages. You should also have plugins that link to all of your relevant social media accounts.