Article

Raul Harman
Raul Harman 7 February 2020
Categories Mobile, Search Marketing

Mobile SEO: How to Prepare in 2020?

The number of mobile searchers is growing. Given that, it’s not surprising at all that mobile searches have already surpassed desktop ones. Therefore, if you don’t have a solid mobile SEO strategy, you’re ignoring a large group of consumers.

The number of mobile searchers is growing. Given that, it’s not surprising at all that mobile searches have already surpassed desktop ones

Therefore, if you don’t have a solid mobile SEO strategy, you’re ignoring a large group of consumers. That’s a huge mistake that may soon result in poorer SEO rankings and traffic, as well as lower conversion rates. 

Here are a few steps to take to boost your mobile SEO in 2020.

Check your Site’s Mobile-Friendliness

Before you start investing in mobile SEO, you should test your site and analyse its mobile-friendliness. There are numerous simple tools to use. 

Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test may serve as a solid starting point. Enter your URL into the search box, click the “Run Test” button, and you will soon receive a detailed report telling you how optimised your page is. 

Then, ensure that search engines can crawl your site effortlessly. In other words, you want to check how Google finds and indexes your content. If its spiders don’t crawl your content, it won’t appear on Google. This is where Google Search Console can help you. Click Crawl > Crawl Errors and then find the “Smartphone” tab. You will find a detailed graph and a list of any errors the tool found during the analysis.

Focus on Mobile User Experiences

Just investing in the right keywords to appear in the SERPs and getting people to click on your site is not enough. You need to encourage visitors to stay longer on your site by providing seamless and personalized user experiences. The idea is to engage them to take the desired action, be it subscribing to your newsletter list, downloading your lead magnet, or making a purchase. 

For starters, your goal is to minimise the bounce rate. According to some recent studies, mobile bounce rates are higher than desktop ones. It’s important to note that dwell time (the time a visitor spends on your site) is one of the most significant ranking factors, so boosting it should be your priority. Here are a few simple steps to take:

  • Boost your website speed.

Google says that 53% of customers will ditch your site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Furthermore, most of your visitors expect your page to load in less than 2 seconds. So, for starters, you should analyze your website speed. Use Google’s Mobile Speed Test to check whether there is anything that should be improved. All you need to do is enter your URL and the software will scan your site thoroughly. Once the scanning is finished, the tool will provide you with a detailed speed report and even suggest certain steps to take to boost your mobile page speed.

If your website speed is not good enough, start by choosing a better hosting plan, especially if you’re still using shared hosting. Switching to a content delivery network can also be a good starting point, as it will provide exceptional website experiences, irrespective of users’ location. Compressing large image files is also a common website speed fix, as well as minifying code to lower the number of page results. Finally, don’t ignore website caching, as it will serve your pages faster. 

  • Design a responsive site.

Modern customers are tech-savvy. Just look at Generation Z, a new generational cohort that uses approximately five devices daily. They will routinely switch between different devices and they expect you to provide them with consistent browsing experiences. Stats say that 63% of visitors expect that from you, but only 42% of them believe they receive such experiences. 

To provide seamless buying experiences, you need to invest in responsive website design. Simply put, a responsive site is the one that provides exceptional user experiences at every touchpoint. Therefore, no matter if a customer is visiting your site from a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, or a smartphone, your design elements should resize to fit users’ screens. 

Now, if you’re running your site on WordPress, making your site responsive is easy – you just need to choose the right themes and plugins. If you don’t have a WP site, then you will probably need to hire a web developer to apply Google’s guidelines for creating a responsive website design for you. Choose individuals or agencies that provide reviews and invest in transparent client relationships. 

Prepare for Voice Search

With the rise of mobile technologies, voice search is also gaining momentum. Surveys say that half of all smartphone users already use voice technologies, while 1/3 them use them daily. This number is expected to grow in 2020 and beyond and the reason for that is simple – voice technologies make our lives easier. Using them, you don’t have too look at your smartphone when conducting a search or reading Google results. If you want to buy shoes, all you need to do is say “OK Google, what’s the nearest shoe store” and the Big G will provide (and read) the results for you. 

So, your goal is to cater to voice searchers and appear right in front of them. Here are a few steps to take to appear in answer boxes:

  • Use conversational, question-based and long-tail keywords.
  • Answer questions accurately and briefly. According to the Backlinko study, top voice search results are less than 30 words long.
  • Include lists and tables in your blog content.
  • Have a thorough FAQ page.
  • Insert questions in subheadings and text.

Strengthen your Technical SEO Tactics

There are a few technical SEO techniques you should implement to give your site a notable boost.

  • Have a sitemap to enable Google to crawl your website. Now, Yoast SEO may help you a lot here, as it automatically develops sitemaps. If you don’t use Yoast, visit XML sitemaps and you will create one for free.
  • Switch from HTTP to HTTPS. Namely, sites that haven’t invested in an SSL certificate are now flagged as “not secure,” while those using HTTPS are labeled with a green padlock and the “secure” mark. This may impact user experiences, as no one wants to stay on a site (or buy from it) if it doesn’t protect their data properly.
  • Use Google’ Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that are specifically designed to make your pages lighter, mobile-friendly, and easier to load.
  • Use schema markup, microdata that helps Google understand the context behind your pages and display them in the right way.

Over to You

Optimizing your website for mobile searchers should be a central part of your SEO strategy in 2020. Focus on user experiences. Understand their search intent and optimize your site for the keywords they really use. Don’t forget that most mobile and voice users expect seamless and frictionless browsing journeys, where they will access perfectly optimized, visually appealing, and targeted content. There are also certain technical SEO considerations that will give you the opportunity to maximize your rankings and take your mobile UX to the next level.

Hope this helps!

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