Mobile optimization is ensuring your website content and design has been configured to provide mobile device users a friendly and enjoyable browsing experience. The objective of mobile SEO strategies is to review page design, load times, site structure, and other elements to ensure you are not alienating and turning away potential website traffic.

Aren’t All Sites Mobile Friendly Already?

No, not all sites are mobile friendly. Even though the number of mobile users accessing content online has grown significantly and is now the preferred Internet browsing method for most people, there are still websites out there that have not been optimized for mobile devices.

What Mobile SEO Factors Does Google Use to Rank Sites?

Google uses several different SEO factors to rank the placement of mobile-friendly websites in search engine results. Some of the more common ones, which are not displayed in any particular order, but are all equally important include:

• Blocked Content – Some site blocks images, JavaScript, and CSS-based content. This was necessary in the past when mobile devices were not capable of supporting or displaying such content. However, this is no longer the case and when content is blocked, it is not indexed, so it affects SERP (search engine result page) rankings.
• Website Design – The type of design used can be a relevant ranking factor. For mobile users, you want to avoid using Flash plugins, pop up boxes, and difficult page navigation. For page navigation, make sure clickable hyperlinks and menu options are touchscreen friendly. A great tip is to always design the site for people with big fingers so you can ensure pages can be scrolled when they need to be and there are no links, buttons or other clickable objects in the way.
• Page Load Speeds – Just like desktop websites, the page load speeds of mobile sites is a ranking factor. Ideally, pages should load quickly within three seconds or less. Any longer and the user may decide to back-click off the site, which has a negative impact on your rankings.
• Title Tags and Meta Descriptions – Page titles and descriptions are ranking factors. Make sure to correctly optimize these and stick to the character length restrictions, especially for mobile devices, since you are working with a smaller display.
• Localization Optimization – Google will look at whether a mobile site has been optimized for its local area. Most business with a local presence will want to optimize the site by incorporating their address, phone number, city, and state into the website’s Meta data.
• Page Content – The quality of the content on each of the site’s pages is just as important other ranking factors. Even though you will want to ensure content is mobile display friendly, there still needs to be sufficient content on the pages.

Keep in mind Google has hundreds of factors used with SERPs and the best optimization strategy is to focus on those that matter the most. For assistance in optimizing your mobile-friendly website or to make your current website mobile-friendly for SEO, contact the mobile website design and SEO experts at Logik Digital by phoning 1-866-307-0086 today!