Mobile SEO: Your 5 Step Guide To Instantly Dominate Google’s Mobile-First Index

Mobile users are goal oriented.

What does this mean?

A mobile user uses a website completely different to how a desktop user might. Which means if you don’t have a completely mobile version (not just mobile-friendly) website, you are definitely losing out on the big bucks.

Google has started prioritising their Mobile-First Index. (So your website should be mobile ready….yesterday.) Don’t just focus on desktop SEO and leave mobile SEO off the table.

Google’s Mobile-First Index means “Google will start ranking your mobile website experience OVER your website’s desktop experience in determining where you sit in the search rankings.”

Apply these mobile SEO strategies and techniques, and have a direct impact on your mobile SEO ranking and bottom line.

We’ve based this article on Google’s white paper on mobile design principles, you’ll find the download link at the bottom of this article.

So what is Mobile SEO? We’ll cover the five principles of Mobile SEO in this article:

  1. Homepage and Site Navigation
  2. Site Search
  3. Form Entry
  4. Commerce and Conversion
  5. Usability & Form Factor

Not sure if your website is mobile-friendly and meets Google’s guidelines? The Primal team are happy to review and discuss specific strategies you can use to improve. Give us a call on 02 038 5850.

Optimising Speed and Website Usability for Mobile Users

Before we jump into the practical changes you need to make for a mobile site and your mobile seo strategy. We need to know what Google defines a “good mobile website” as. After all – with Google being the big search boss, we want to make sure our site makes them happy.

Google defines a ‘good mobile-friendly website’ as:

  • A website that is immediately usable
  • A website that is readable on mobile devices

We can achieve this quickly (and make Google happy) by:

  1. Having all your content in focus
  2. Make it so your users don’t have to zoom in
  3. Make your links easy to use
  4. Don’t make your users scroll, give them their information at one glance.

Check Your Website Speed

You should run Google’s PageSpeed Insight tool before you start going through these principles because it’ll give you a good starting point to optimise your page.

So if you’re asking yourself how to do mobile SEO or want the latest mobile SEO techniques. Read on for your complete 5 step guide.

1. Your Home Page and Navigation Options

Use these guiding principles for great Homepage and Site Nav:

  • Your CTA’s need to be front and centre
  • Your Menus should be short and sweet (eliminates scrolling)
  • It should be easy to get back to the homepage
  • Don’t let promotions overtake the screen

Putting your CTA’s front and centre:

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2. Searching Options

When it comes to search you’re catering to smaller screens to make it super simple for your users. Follow these key steps to create a great search experience on your mobile site:

  • Make it visible
  • Make the results highly relevant
  • Have the right filters for usability
  • Help guide users to better site search results

Provide easy, relevant search options:

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3. Converting Mobile Users and Website Commerce

When it comes to conversion and selling on your mobile website (an e-commerce mobile site), you want to create a seamless customer journey. Setting up a smooth digital experience will guide them to the purchase or signup you want them to perform.

Your guiding principles for Ecommerce and Conversion:

  • Let users explore your site before having to register or create an account
  • Let users purchase as a guest. Make checkout convenient, simple and easy
  • Make conversion easy by pre-filling information you have
  • Use click-to-call buttons for complex tasks

Make checking out a super simple process:

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4. Form Entry Options

No one likes filling out forms. Having a big, bulky, tedious form?

That’s the fastest way to get anyone to go “Nope, not filling that in!”

Then what do they do? Click out of your website.

Take these points to create a smooth form filling process:

  • Streamline the information entry process
  • Make input super simple
  • Provide visual calendars for dates
  • Provide labelling and real-time validation for forms
  • Design efficient forms

With labeling and real-time validation you help guide the user:

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5. User Experience and Usability

You can create an overall good mobile website experience with some simple user experience and usability best practices.

Here are some quick tips you can apply:

  • Optimise your entire site for Mobile
  • Remove Pinch to Zoom, it frustrates users
  • Make product images expandable
  • Tell users which screen orientation works best
  • Keep your user in a single browser window
  • Use the label desktop version instead of “Full version”
  • Be clear why you need a users location

Don’t Forget About Your General SEO Formatting Tricks

Lastly, while you absolutely need to have a mobile designed website with specific mobile created pages. Make sure you keep an eye on established SEO strategies and apply both to really make an impact on your Mobile SEO.

  • Optimise your website page titles to catch your mobile user’s attention
  • Give them a small but accurate sample in the title
  • Optimise for local SEO searches (this can help to pull in more customers year-round)
  • Use HTML headings so they resize to fit a variety of screens
  • Use structured URLs to allow search engines to find your page quicker and easier

Read more: 6 SEO Hacks To Outrank Your Competitors Right Now

Steps You Can Take to Optimise Your Website

There are a few extra steps you can take today to optimise your website to be mobile-friendly, and many of them won’t take you long to do.

  • The first thing you should do is put your page through Google’s Mobile-Friendly test.
  • Once you’ve done this step, take a look at the Mobile Usability Report to see any potential issues with your site. Not only will this give you a good starting point, but it’ll tell you exactly what you have to fix.
  • The second thing you want to do is look at your site’s JavaScript, image files, and CCS. It used to be quicker to automatically block these things, but today most Smartphones can easily handle them. Additionally, Googlebot has to have access to these things to consider your page to be ‘mobile-friendly,’ so do keep them unblocked and crawl-able.
  • Finally, reduce the number of redirects your users’ experience as this can slow them down. If you have separate mobile URLs for each desktop URL, you have to direct your mobile customers to them clearly so they end up on the right site format for their device.

You can download the Google Whitepaper here: https://goo.gl/sALbNv

It’s the digital age, and optimising your website to be mobile-friendly is a must if you intend to keep your website relevant and competitive. These simple tips can help you transition your website to a mobile-friendly format and help it go to the next level.

If you’re not sure if your mobile SEO is up to scratch for Google, the Primal team will be happy to go through your website in detail, give us a call on 02 038 5850 today.