Mobile SEO – Essential Tips and Techniques

Mobile SEO – Essential Tips and Techniques

As technology advances, we are all beginning to use our smartphones and tablets more and more whilst on the move.  From finding out directions to the nearest sushi restaurant to settling debates in the pub over which premiership footballer has scored the most goals, our smartphones and tablets have become essential Internet surfing tools that we rely on in our everyday lives. 

Thankfully, the majority of the most used sites on the web have mobile versions of their pages, which mean that we do not have to strain our eyes to read content.  A large number of businesses, however, are not maintaining multiple mobile versions of their site due to a lack of resources, time or effort.  The results of this are simple – mobile web presence will not be optimized and businesses will fail to benefit from the increased mobile usage of the web. 

There are a few cost-effective techniques that a business can do to ensure that they are not missing out on mobile opportunities.  The most important thing to consider is website analysis.  Scrutinizing the available data on mobile usage of your site in order to assess where resources should be spent is imperative for mobile website optimization.  Using tools within Google Analytics, for example, an SEO can look at the behavior of the mobile users of a site, identifying the keywords that mobile users are using (which are often different to desktop users), the landing pages that mobile users are visiting the most and the different devices that are visiting your site.   With such data we can optimize specific pages rather than an entire site, focus on different keywords for mobile pages and also assess whether certain devices (such as Blackberries) are experiencing problems on a site. 

Secondly, it is important to think local when optimizing your site for mobile usage.  According to a recent Google study over 90% of mobile searchers are looking for local information, such as local contact information, phone numbers or directions.  These are therefore the areas of your site that you should ensure work well on mobile devices.  Using third-party applications, such as Google Map and Google Places, can really help in this field. 

Lastly, utilizing social media is essential if you want to optimize your mobile web presence.  Due to the increased popularity of social media apps more and more people are accessing sites such as Facebook and Twitter on their phones and tablets.  If your content is being shared on social media sites then you are therefore more likely to get referral visits from them.  Increasing your social media activity and making your online content easy to share, through having social media widgets on your landing pages, will go a long way in increasing the amount of traffic to your site from mobile social media users.

It is important to note that these techniques are cost effective, yet time consuming activities.  Using digital marketers to achieve these objectives may therefore make such work a lot easier.  For more information on how Pipon can help on this front, please visit our website or contact us for further advice.  In the meantime, visit your website on your mobile device and assess the experience. Remember, as technology on this front advances it is key for your business and site to keep on top of developments and ensure that your are not missing out on endless mobile opportunities.