5 SEO Tips for Mobile-Friendly Websites

05/16/19 | by Terrnekia Collier | SEO

When your website was created, did you have SEO for mobile devices in mind, or just desktops? If you didn’t consider mobile optimization for your site, don’t fret! We’re here to tell you exactly why it’s extremely important to include when designing or revamping your website.

First off, what exactly is SEO? Well, search engine optimization is the practice of optimizing the web pages and content on your site in order to rank as high as possible on search engines like Google. The higher you rank, the more web traffic is directed to your site and that means more business!

SEO focuses on increasing your rankings through organic efforts, aka non-paid advertisements. This can be accomplished by tailoring the content on your website to topics that are relevant and useful to prospective clients.

When you’re looking for a doctor, craving a particular cuisine, or trying to find something to do, how often do you find yourself picking up your smartphone instead of your computer? With an abundance of smartphones available, consumers are using their phones more and more to find immediate results or answers.

According to CNBC, almost 72 percent of internet users will access the web strictly through their smartphones by the year 2025.

That number estimates to over 3 billion people globally! To say that this percentage is huge would be an understatement. Now, imagine if you don’t prepare for this shift by not utilizing mobile-friendly SEO. That eliminates the possibility of all those potential clients clicking to enter your website.

But don’t you worry! We’re here to assist you in building a site for your business that includes mobile optimization. That means accounting loading times, different screen sizes, and other design details. In order to make sure that you are prepared for all the mobile traffic coming your way, here are 5 SEO Tips for mobile-friendly websites.

1. Build a Mobile-Optimized Website

Websites designed for desktops are not always built to perform well on devices with limited computing power, therefore search engines will prioritize mobile-optimized websites ahead of others that may be difficult to load on smartphones.

FlipWeb recently reported that Google announced that they will start preferring mobile-first websites for indexing in their search. What is mobile-first indexing you ask?

Well, it means that Google will be using the mobile version of your content instead of the desktop version for indexing and ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

In the past, Google was predominantly utilizing the desktop version to access a website’s relevance to users, but this was before mobile traffic began to far surpass that.

Google supports three different configurations for creating smartphone-optimized websites, but they have openly recommended using responsive website design. When building a responsive layout, the same HTML is used for all website content but CSS media queries determine where and how the content is shown on different devices and browser dimensions.

So, when creating your website, you have to anticipate how your content will be shown to people who are using mobile devices, not just desktops.

2. Develop Top Funnel Content

Compelling content is the heart of a mobile-optimized website and it is important to always include the most useful and relevant content near the top of the page for better visibility on mobile devices.

When creating content for mobile SEO it is important to include:

Content promoting the goods and services your business offers
Detailed information discussing products and/or services
Your blog – this helps pull in mobile users looking for solutions
Regularly updated new client specials and offers to drive conversions
Client testimonials and reviews

You should always consider whether the information you’re displaying on your mobile-friendly website is offering actual answers to visitors or if it can be scrapped.

3. Be Aware of Page Speed and Eliminate Pop-Ups

According to Google’s mobile optimization guidelines, the key content on a webpage should be delivered to mobile website visitors within one second or less. It is important to take steps towards quick page load time as websites will be penalized for slow load times.

Slow load drives also hurt your websites ranking because it actually drives traffic away. If someone enters your site but it takes a long time for the content to fully load, visitors will just click out of your site and find another.

In order to keep them present and scrolling through the content on your site for as long as possible, optimizing for faster load times should be a top priority.

Pop-ups are also something to keep in mind when strategizing about how to keep users on your website.

If you have ever visited a site on your smartphone where pop-ups appear, then you know how annoying these can be due to the screen size. It is best to avoid using pop-ups in almost all cases, especially because they can be difficult to close them on mobile devices.

You can provide information, such as a content download or calls-to-action, elsewhere in an easy to find location.

4. Optimize for Local Users

When prospects look up local businesses pertaining to your industry, your site should ideally rank among the top results. But, how can you rank if you aren’t accounting for local users?

If you have multiple locations, provide mobile-friendly optimized pages targeting each location. Including a link to Google Maps for easily accessible directions can help increase the likelihood that visitors will convert into clients.

5. Make Contact Information Easily Accessible

The highest bounce rate from website visits comes from mobile users. It is crucial to provide easy-to-find contact information for those visitors planning to take immediate action. Plan your placement of phone numbers, directions, and business hours accordingly.

Also, be sure to check to make sure that your contact information is correct on all local directories so that it is the same information on every platform where your business comes up.

Why Mobile SEO is Important

With the way in which content is being consumed by users, it’s important to be able to adapt and redesign your website to fit the needs of your clients. As long as you stay up to date on the latest SEO news and use that information to your advantage, your website will draw in more traffic and clients.