Mobile SEO. How to optimize your site for better rankings?

It’s been a while since Google started their initiative to bring the mobile version of their search engine in the same quality level with their desktop one, but there are still many people who don’t know the difference between mobile and regular SEO and how they can use it to improve their rankings on Google search.

In this article we will try to explain what mobile SEO really means and why it is important today, as well as how you can optimize your site so that your visitors will see only relevant content on their mobile device, thus increasing your overall page ranking on the major search engines such as Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Desktop-first or mobile-first?

Nowadays, mobilegeddon has raised mobile-optimization in importance over desktop search engine optimization. This is mainly because of how more people are using their phones to access Google and search. Considering how effective a well-optimized mobile version of a website is when it comes to gaining traffic, businesses can’t afford not to have one if they want organic traffic from Google.

Desktop-first is about creating a website design for desktop devices with the best HD resolution to use the potential of a large screen. Then, if we want to adapt to smaller screens, we get rid of some elements from the page and the script, or hide parts of the script. As a result, we get a page with a lower resolution, often with an unadjusted layout introducing chaos in the reception.

It is the opposite in the case of mobile-first design, where we start creating the website from the smallest device. They are adjusted in terms of UX and technical capabilities of the device. Then, as the resolution increases, we add new functions and expand the page layout. On the mobile version, there are no hidden elements that increase the weight of the page. This makes it faster, which affects the conversion rate.

What is mobile SEO and why is it important?

Mobile has become more and more important over time, and if you are not optimizing your website, then you might be missing out on some major opportunities. This can be a huge detriment when it comes to ranking in search engines like Google.

There is a new algorithm by Google called Mobilegeddon that focuses specifically on websites that are mobile friendly in order to give preference to those sites over others who aren’t as mobile friendly when users search through Google via their phones or other devices.

It has become very important because Google will have a Mobile-First Index in future and mobile usability is more important now than ever before, especially on Google search results pages. In this case, the search engine first targets the mobile version of the website and then determines the search ranking. Mobile-First Index makes Google treat the mobile version of the website as the basic one since March 2021.

The most common mistakes – what should be avoided?

The most common mistake is not making any changes at all. Even if you’re happy with how your website performs on mobile, Google will be rolling out a new algorithm that puts a lot of emphasis on mobile optimization when it comes to ranking pages and websites in search results, meaning that even small tweaks can help boost organic traffic from Google over time.The most popular SEO errors include:

• blocked CSS, JavaScript and robots.txt files,
• incorrect 301 redirects,
• faulty 404,
• full-screen ads that hide the content of the page,
• incorrect internal and external linking,
• wrong font,
• placing interactive elements too close to each other,
• no responsive page.

How to improve your mobile SEO?

Content

Our website should always be easy and pleasant to use on any device. However, mobile optimization is currently more important than ever. That means we need to ensure our content is easily readable on all devices. In the case of mobile devices, however, you need to pay more attention to the correct placement of materials. Divide them into smaller pieces to make them easier to use. Additionally, consider the location of specific buttons. Facilitate their placement under your user’s thumb. Additionally, remember to have enough space around it so as not to come across the second interactive element.

Use AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP is an open source platform for HTML aimed at facilitating the creation of websites that are characterized by speed of operation, optimization in terms of code and User Experience. Allows you to store the page in the cache.

Google is now favoring mobile content over desktop versions of websites. But with over 60% of Google searches coming from mobile devices, you can bet that Google is also looking at how fast sites load on phones—and if they don’t load fast enough, they won’t rank as highly in search results.

Provide instant loading times

The user experience on mobile devices is of utmost importance, according to research. A page that takes more than 3 seconds to load is likely going to be abandoned by mobile visitors and could even suffer in organic search results as a result of slow load times. To ensure you don’t get dinged for slow load times, make sure your pages are optimized with proper results of Core Web Vitals indicators. Check them out in Google Search Console and Google Analytics panels.

Optimize Image Size

Optimizing images is an easy way to increase page speed and can make a noticeable difference in how well you rank in mobile search results. It’s also important to create a mobile-friendly experience for users, as Google will penalize sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices. Here are three tips on optimizing images:

• Make sure all of your images have descriptive alt text;
• Use CSS instead of JavaScript whenever possible;
• Use responsive design techniques when creating new websites or redesigning existing ones.

Handle Responsive Design

Responsive design is a way of creating web pages that are optimized for various devices and screen sizes, making them accessible to mobile users while maintaining a similar look and feel across all platforms. If you have yet to implement responsive design on your website, it may be wise to do so before implementing mobile-friendly techniques. It’s easier than ever before to create a responsive website—most web development tools now include features that allow developers to build cross-platform websites without writing any code at all! Responsiveness is also one of the ranking factors.

Conclusion

Mobilegeddon is Google’s update on mobile search results, which has caused a lot of concern and confusion among digital marketers. The most important thing to remember when it comes to mobile SEO is that you need to be flexible and willing to change course quickly when things don’t go as planned. Mobile is a fast-changing landscape, so keep up with industry trends and always test new things!