Mobile SEO is a specific strategy of SEO that focuses on refining your website to make it mobile-friendly. The main goal is to make it super easy and comfortable for mobile users. This can include improving website responsiveness, reducing complicated elements, reducing ads, and more. Making a mobile-friendly website is unnecessary now if you want to be on the top of the SERPs.
In simple terms, Google now looks at the Mobile version of your website first before deciding to give a rank in search results. If your site is not optimized well for Mobile, it might rank lower. Even if the site is looking great on the desktop side, it is still of no use. Let’s discuss how a mobile-friendly website impacts SEO. We will also share practical tips to optimize website for mobile.
How to optimize a website for mobile?
Mobile optimization for SEO ensures that your website works seamlessly on smartphones and tablets. Since Mobile traffic is dominating the Internet these days, you should optimize website for mobile as soon as possible. Here is how to do it in the perfect way.
- Responsive design
You must ensure that your website has an easy to read and navigate pattern to make it super responsive. A responsive site can always adjust to any screen size like that of a phone, tablet or desktop. You can use CSS to make your layout flexible. Besides, you should not avoid testing your site on different devices to ensure everything looks good.
- Loading speed
Remember that your mobile users won’t like to wait long to just load your website. This is why you should put in all efforts to improve the loading speed. The best way is to compress image, reduce file sizes, and enable cashing. Moreover, you should use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve content from the nearest servers. Needless to mention, you should avoid heavy plug-ins or unnecessary code.
- Easy to navigate
As a website owner, you should try to keep your site easy to navigate. You can keep a compact menu like a hamburger icon along with sticky headers. This will allow your users to access menus while scrolling. Besides, your buttons and links must be big enough to tap without zooming.
- Readable text
Your site appears on a smaller screen, so the text must be comforting and readable to the eyes. You should try to keep phones at least 16 px in size. Try to keep enough space between lines and ensure the text contrasts well with the background for clarity.
- Images and videos
You already know that large images and videos can slow down your website to a great extent. This is why you should use responsive design images that automatically resize based on screen size. You can serve images in modern formats like Web B, which provide high-quality at a smaller file sizes. On the other hand, you can use responsive video players like HTML and avoid auto-play features for videos. As a result, you can optimize both images and videos.
- Pop-ups
Note that pop-ups can be intrusive on mobile devices if they are not handled properly. Therefore, you should try to follow these actions.
- Use small and dismissible pop-ups or inline banners.
- Avoid pop-ups that cover the entire screen.
- Ensure pop-ups comply with Google’s guidelines to avoid penalties.
Common Mistakes With Mobile SEO
When it comes to mobile issues, even smaller mistakes can hurt your website’s performance. Therefore, you should avoid these common pitfalls in order to make sure your mobile optimization for SEO strategy works.
1. Slow Page Speed
Is your website taking too much time to load on mobile? There could be a higher chance that your visitors will leave the site quickly. This not only increases your bounce rate but also lowers your search rankings.
2. Missing Content
One big mistake is having important content missing from your mobile site. If your mobile version does not match your desktop site or if key information is left out, then users will feel frustrated. Therefore, you should maintain consistency between your mobile and desktop content.
3. Unplayable Content
Sometimes, websites include videos or interactive features that don’t work properly on mobile. This creates a poor experience for users. Hence, you should always make sure that all multimedia content is compatible with mobile platforms.
4. Bad Redirects
Redirects that don’t work well for mobile users can cause problems like endless redirect loops or loading the wrong pages. These errors confuse users and hurt your mobile search ranking. Hence, always double-check that your redirects are correctly set up for Mobile visitors.
5. Poor UX
A bad mobile user experience can drive people away. You need to check for issues like confusing navigation, hard-to-read text, or tiny buttons. This is used can make a difficult for users to engage with your side. Hence, you should try to create a clean and easy-to-use design that works well on smaller screens.
6. Excessive Ads
You want to put too many ads on your site to earn money, but this can be harmful to your website’s health. However, this can annoy users because lots of ads slow down the page. Ads also block some portions of the page. Consequently, it leads to higher bounce rates and lower rankings. This is why you should keep minimal ads so that they don’t disrupt the user experience.
Conclusion
Many people access websites from their phones rather than from desktops. Hence, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly sites. We have mentioned all the powerful techniques to make a mobile-friendly website and some mistakes that you should avoid. If you want to know more about mobile optimization for SEO, reach out to us!