Optimizing your site for mobile search engines should certainly move to the top of your to-do list, if it hasn't already. After all, it's an easy and enticing activity for on-the-go consumers who may have a question about a product or service they're looking for, or need to find specific information about a business.
However, trying to meet mobile users where they're searching is a bit trickier than your average run-of-the-mill desktop search engine optimization. Mobile searches take into account a number of different criteria to determine a site's ranking, which can include overall site performance, usability, download speed and screen rendering, among other things. But the extra work is worth it, because not only are mobile users searching more and more, but they're also buying more frequently from their devices.
When it comes to preparing your business for mobile search, there are a number of ways that you can differentiate your SEO practices to be ready for tech-savvy, mobile-ready consumers that can help you vastly improve your business's performance on the mobile Web.
A website that is appropriately optimized for mobile devices of all shapes, sizes and operating systems will have a much better chance of ranking higher in the mobile SERPs, particularly when compared to a site that has just been reformatted to fit a smaller screen. This is because transcoding a pre-existing Web page strips it of some key content and leads to incomplete pages and, thus, decreased usability. All of this is detrimental to a high page ranking.
Plus, the type of mobile device that a user is searching on also plays a role in determining site ranking, as different mobile browsers render pages in different ways that can affect usability. As a result, brands with device agnostic mobile strategies that work with a number of different mobile operating systems will consistently rank higher for the vast majority of mobile users.
If you already have some sort of local presence online, you should definitely be nurturing that as part of your mobile SEO initiatives, because often, many mobile searchers are actually looking for specific information about local businesses. In fact, according to a Google survey, 76 percent of mobile consumers use their devices to search for a business's location or operating hours.
In other words, part of having good mobile SEO is also having good local search optimization in place, especially if you're just a local business or a retailer with various brick-and-mortar locations. For a quick guide on how to get started, check out our 3 Key Steps to Optimize for Local Search.
Approximately 41 percent of all emails that marketers send out are opened on mobile devices, which means that companies should be incorporating multiple incoming links into their digital newsletters that will send recipients to their websites. These links will offer a fully integrated experience that gives brands a chance to establish a more connected presence across the mobile Web. But more importantly, these traffic driving tools, along with social media, allow consumers to find and click on links instantly.
All of that traffic, especially via outside links, is going to look good for your mobile website and can play a big role in helping to improve your mobile SEO efforts. However, links that aren't tested or maintained will obviously end up leading to a loss of traffic from redirects to your mobile site, so make sure you put working links in your email newsletters, in order to fully reap the benefits of all of that traffic.
It make take some time and testing to get it right, but readjusting your SEO practices and reimagining your website to consider mobile search engines may be the next step to helping your brand conquer the mobile Web.