In today’s society, it is not uncommon to walk down the street and see people with their heads stuck in the phones looking through the internet. In fact, many people are now using their phones to browse the web more often than a desktop computer.
In 2016, mobile overtook desktop as the primary device that is used to access websites. Therefore, when thinking about the SEO of a site, the SEO of a mobile site should also be considered.
If people are using their mobile devices to search for sites on a search engine, then it is important that a website is fully compatible with a mobile device.
Many companies are now even considering the mobile first approach. This concept is when the design process of the website starts with mobile considerations and constraints, and then the design process is worked up from there to tablets, laptops and then PCs. By using this process, a website can run a lot faster which is a very important factor when it comes to Google rankings.
Statistics show that more Google searches take place on a mobile device than on a computer, and is continuing to gain momentum. Mobile technology is a fast growing sector, and it is getting easier and easier to use the internet when out and about with faster processing, larger screens and more websites that are mobile compatible.
62% of B2B marketers and 51% of B2C marketers have now optimized their blogs for mobile for the main reason of improving SEO. In 2017 alone, 90% of internet users will access online content through their phones at some point, and in 2018 this number will only get higher. The age of mobile has well and truly arrived.
The problem is, the majority of sites are still originally built for a desktop, and then dialled back for mobile, but the majority of sites fall down on usability. Although you may be able to access a certain site on a mobile device, there may be some features that do not work as well as they should, such as forms or videos, and this can have a largely negative effect on SEO.
If people are not happy with the usability of a site, then they will simply leave to find a better one, and this is where SEO will start to fall significantly.
To build a mobile website that has good SEO from the start, the web designer should first look at what Google wants. Two of the key factors are usability and speed. Over half of mobile users will leave a site if it takes longer than three seconds to load, and again this can have a negative effect when it comes to SEO.
Because of the fact that more people now search on a mobile than on a computer, a mobile will generate more page views. The fact that mobile data is notoriously unreliable doesn’t help either, meaning that a site has to be more robust than ever to be successful.
A business should take a look how to deliver mobile-friendly content, either through responsive web design, dynamic content or separate URLs for the mobile site and desktop site. Responsive web design is the method that Google favours, therefore this is the approach that most web designers should take.
Google will look at many factors of a mobile site, such as flash usage, viewpoint, content size, touch elements and more. There are so many factors that a mobile web designer has to consider when building a website, but due to the increased usage of mobile phones to view the web, it can play an important part in website SEO.
To challenge you with how well you know SEO, SEOJury.co.uk created below interesting infographic.
Presented by SEOjury.co.uk