Mobile devices have transformed how people search for content online and ultimately how such content is delivered by the host. Mobile apps and mobile search result pages are easily connecting brands and searchers via several mobile smart devices in several parts of the world. As such, website owners can no longer rely on PC and laptops only to deliver great user experience for visitors.
In fact, a 2015 Global Web Index data indicating the global popularity of using different digital devices revealed that smartphones account for 80% of searches online, tablets account for 47%, while game console accounts for 37%. These findings are clear indications that website content should be appropriately optimized for mobile devices to suit the needs of mobile searchers.
Google’s Influence on Mobile Search Result Pages
Google has changed many of its SEO rules and introduced new ones, and it will continue to do so. Nonetheless, Google’s quest remains constant: to deliver high-quality content to search engine users at all times. On mobile devices and PC, the search engine giant is constantly indexing web pages with great user experience, relevance, and trust.
However, websites that offer great user experience on PC and failed to repeat same on mobile devices are considered poor fit for high ranking and visibility in search engine result pages. As such, website owners are left with little or no choice to optimize their content across PC and mobile devices or face the consequences.
What exactly is Mobile SEO?
Mobile SEO starts with having a mobile-friendly website, the process of designing your website and structuring your content for visitors who access the site via mobile devices to have a rich user experience. If your website is mobile-friendly or responsive, it means visitors can access the website via any mobile device that is connected to the internet and have the same experience as anyone accessing the same site via a PC.
However, mobile SEO is the process of influencing your website visibility and ranking in mobile search result pages. It all starts with creating a mobile-friendly website and takes it a whole lot further.
Structuring Your Website for Mobile SEO
Mobile devices have different shapes, sizes and screen sizes. You need to consider the different designs and Operating Systems of different mobile devices before structuring your content to suit all platforms. As such, you may need to create a mobile-friendly version of your website or opt for any other relevant option.
There are four key mobile platforms to choose from; dynamic serving, a separate mobile site, responsive design, or a combination of all. All platforms function quite well as long as you consider the features of mobile devices and take advantage of them.
- Dynamic Serving: uses the exact URL no matter what the device is. However, Dynamic serving generates a different HTML version for different type of device depending on what the server knows about the visitor’s browser.
- Responsive Web Design: this design is strongly recommended by Google. It serves exactly the same HTML code irrespective of the site visitor’s device but can deliver the display (respond) differently depending on the visitor’s device screen size.
- Separate URLs: serves separate codes to different devices and on different URLs. This configuration is designed to detect the visitor’s device, then redirect to the right page via HTTP redirects and with the Vary HTTP header.
Whichever you opt for to create a great user experience for your site visitors, ensure your site map is designed for search spiders to crawl easily and index appropriately. EraBright offers the best mobile SEO around. Contact us today.