The use of smartphones has increased exponentially. According to a recent study. the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to pass the five billion mark by 2019. That is more than 3/4th of the world population. If your marketing strategy hasn’t taken this segment into account then it should as soon as possible.
After observing this change in trend, Google too has upgraded its algorithms to focus on mobile search. Earlier you had your Desktop version and Mobile version of website. Now primarily irrespective of which device you use, results are shown from Google’s mobile index. It has become necessary for companies to they follow mobile friendly website optimisation practices.
If you are in the process of creating a website or already have one, here are some advanced mobile SEO techniques that you should consider following:
Advanced Mobile SEO Techniques
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Revisit your digital marketing strategy:
First and foremost, you need to revisit your digital marketing strategy and make ‘mobile friendly website optimisation’ a priority. You can hire a team of website designers or outsource your needs to the expects. Irrespective of who does it, best and latest SEO practices need to be followed to ensure that your website is optimized for mobiles in an efficient manner.
Calculate your return on investments post this website and compare them to period prior to its existence. You will find that there has been a significant amount of increase in a short span of time.
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Design your website for mobile users:
It can be tempting to add pop-ups to your website so lead/guide/convert your visitors. This is not a problem with normal websites. But when its a mobile website, then it can be a major disturbance. Mobile screens are much smaller compared to desktops and laptops. So any popup that covers more than half the screen is going to be immediately closed. It is seen as an intrusion rather than an opportunity to go further.
If you intend to add popups, make sure they are unobtrusive, small and can be closed with minimal efforts.
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Responsive web design:
At one point, dynamic websites were considered as the best as they showed desktop or mobile version of the website depending upon the type of device used, while maintaining the content on one url. Although if a new device is used or not recognized, then can revert to a desktop version which can be a major challenge to navigate.
A responsive web design is preferred for its ability to let your content and page layout respond to individual devices, while also maintaining all the content on a single url. Google particularly recommends using a responsive web design as it minimizes other problems such as duplicate content and no redirects that can slow down your site or affect your SEO rankings.
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Increase page speed:
Patience is one virtue that is seemingly being lost these days. And increased internet speeds have a played a major part in such cases. When people surf your websites, they do not have the patience to wait for inordinately long amount of time for a page to load. On average, users are said to wait for 3 seconds before a page loads and if it doesn’t then they move on to the next website. We should aim to keep page load speeds under that time.
You can go for AMP versions as they ensure your pages will be lighter and load faster on all devices.
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Optimize for voice search:
In one of our previous posts (https://www.xenia-consulting.com/how-voice-search-impacts-the-future-of-seo/), we have talked about how voice search is going to be the future of search. It is being estimated that by 2020 alone, 50% searches will be carried out through voice. There is a significant difference between the algorithms of voice search and the more traditional text search. And while it is not exactly in its infancy, voice search algorithms will keep changing to improve the quality of searches. You need to be prepared for this phenomenon right now and adapt as it improves.
These are just some of the basic yet more important advanced mobile SEO techniques. Get in touch to understand the rest and how best to go about the entire process.