Updated May 24, 2023
Introduction to Mobile SEO
The following article provides an outline for Mobile SEO. With the advent of mobile technology and smartphones, more than 40% of online transactions happen through mobile phones today. 2.7 billion smartphone users globally, including three fourth of Americans and one-fourth of Indians, present a good market in the E-commerce space for marketers to sell their products through mobile.
Online Businesses would like to tap the potential offered by mobile platforms and increase their sales revenue. Increasing the number of online users visiting their websites/apps and engaging in transactions can help achieve this goal. Websites/Apps should be optimized to a level that will attract the search engines to list them on the first page of SERP (Search Engine Result Page). The study reveals that the websites listed on the first page get 70% clicks.
What is Mobile SEO?
Search Engine (SE) plays a big role in our day-to-day activities and does various things right, from locating hotels near us to finding a life partner. Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, AOL, Ask.com, Excite, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Lycos, Chacha.com, and Wolfram Alpha enjoy global popularity as widely used search engines. With the queries typed by the users in any format, SE scans through the WEB, fetches the website details pertinent to the query, and lists them in the order it ranks them.
Parameters Used by Search Engine
The Parameters used by SE in ranking the results for listing are:
1. On-Page Parameters
a. content
- Relevance to the user’s needs and meaningful engagement with users.
- Effectiveness and Quality.
- Variety (Blog, Social media, E-Book, White papers, Audio/Video).
- Text in simple sentences with no spelling & grammar mistakes.
- Fresh and updated.
b. HTML
- Title Tag.
- Meta Description.
- Sub-headings.
- Internal links to other sites.
- Image Name and ALT Tag.
c. Keywords and Phrases
2. Off-Page Parameters
- Trust factors.
- Authority.
- Backlinks.
- Social media likes, shares, and comments.
- Bounce rate.
- Personal – Country, City.
The business has full control over on-page parameters and should aim towards achieving excellence in them. Off-page parameters are beyond the business’s direct control, but still, they should maneuver them in their favor. Business optimizes most of the on-page, and a few off-page parameters to make the websites get the best rankings of SE and get listed at the top. The process of optimizing is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The business aims to use this high rank achieved by SEO to:
- Increase the hit ratio of their site.
- Provide good exposure online.
- Build brand value in the online space.
- Expand the customer base.
- Increase sales and revenue.
How does it Work?
SEO is applicable for both desktop and mobile searches. Some think that techniques used in mobile and desktops are the same. In reality, optimizing websites to suit unique scenarios in mobile searches requires considering additional parameters.
- Mobile websites often display less text than desktop versions due to the smaller screen size, resulting in a difference in user experience.
- Depending on the mobile’s size, we should use a different screen that is user-friendly and does not require the user to zoom in to read the content.
- The search operation on mobile needs does not necessarily start from the typed query in the search engine screen. The starting point can be gesture search, voice search, and any other search unique to mobile.
- Search Keywords conveys different meaning at different times. The keywords should be used along with the context.
- Mobile users always like scroll-free screens. This limits the screen’s size for content display; hence, the website optimizer should aim to get the top rank in the SE listings.
Mobile websites should adopt any of the following configurations to remain competitive in getting ranks of SE.
1. Responsive Design
- HTML code remains the same irrespective of the device.
- Managed through meta name in source code to adjust the display settings to match the screen size.
- A single URL makes it easy to share content.
- People can avoid common mistakes in formatting.
2. Dynamic Serving
- Dynamically change the HTML and CSS per the user’s device through the HTTP header.
3. Separate URLs
- Different URLs have different HTML codes as per the user’s device.
Mobile SE optimization is not only restricted to websites, but it is extended to Apps. Study shows that Apps are discovered and downloaded from App stores only in 40% of the cases, and 25% of the time, SE returns apps listed for users to download and consume.
SE Ranking parameters for Apps.
- Right Keywords.
- Ratings and reviews by the users.
- Backlinks that will talk well about apps.
SE chooses the apps per the user’s query and lists them in the ranked order using the above parameters. Apps should be optimized for the above key parameters and make themselves eligible for a better ranking by SE.
Benefits of Using Mobile SEO
Mobile SEO helps Businesses to:
- Build a strong online presence.
- Make it easier for online users to reach the site.
- Have multiple entry points for the users.
- Provide overall good experience to users in navigating screens and completing the transaction.
- Ensure the standard performance level.
- Convert the click on the website/apps into the possible lead, Prospect, and sales.
- Understand the competitor and market dynamics.
SEO techniques used in the mobile app search can also be extended to the Application Store optimizer (ASO). Whenever mobile users make a generic search of apps in the Application Store, an optimized app stands a good chance of scoring good ranks and getting listed at the top and clicked by users.
Conclusion
Many organizations have migrated to mobile-only environments in their strategy due to smartphones’ proliferation and the availability of simple-to-use mobile technologies. There will be hardly any desktop searches in the future. We should refresh mobile SEO techniques to reflect new technological developments, user engagements, and search behaviors.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Mobile SEO. Here we discuss what is mobile SEO, parameters used by SE, and how does it work along with its benefits. You may also look at the following articles to learn more-
