Mobile internet usage is growing year after year, and so are mobile search results. This means that if you don’t optimize your website for all devices, it’s missing out on a huge audience who can’t access your website as easily. Mobile optimization is one of the key elements of any successful SEO strategy because it allows you to take advantage of the growing number of people who use mobile phones and tablets to find information online. That’s why I’m going to teach you how not to mess up by making these harmful mobile SEO mistakes when optimizing for mobile users.
Not having a mobile website
It’s time to create a mobile website for your business, and you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Mobile SEO mistakes are more common because mobile SEO is not as easy as desktop SEO and requires more effort from you and your team.
A mobile-optimized website is necessary for every business with clients or customers who use their phones to access the internet regularly (which is almost everybody these days). A non-optimized site will perform poorly in search results on both Google and Bing. It won’t be able to show up high enough in the rankings when people look for specific keywords related to your business, especially those used by potential customers searching on their phones while standing in front of the store window or looking through the menu at a restaurant. This will lead them right back out of there before they even start!
Serving different content on mobile and desktop websites
One of the most common mobile SEO mistakes is serving different content on your mobile website than on the desktop version. Usually, there is a separate mobile website with the same content as your regular website but with an extra “mobile” URL. This was once considered best practice because it provided a better user experience and increased sales conversions (you can read more about this here). Nowadays, we know that serving different content across devices can lead to lower rankings and poor user experience (UX), so it’s best not to do it at all.
Instead of creating a separate mobile version of your website, use responsive design instead:
- Make sure all pages are responsive by having them auto-adjust based on the device’s resolution.
- Ensure all assets load properly regardless of screen size using image compression techniques like JPEG2000 or WebP compression when appropriate for image formats such as GIFs or PNGs.
Using flash
One of the biggest mobile SEO mistakes is using Flash, which is not supported on mobile devices. Flash content is not searchable, meaning that Google cannot crawl and index it in their search results. It’s also poorly optimized for mobile devices, making it difficult to read or navigate. Finally, since many people use screen readers to access the web, flash content is also inaccessible to them.
Not using responsive design
As of 2018, responsive design is the standard for mobile websites. A site that is not responsive will look bad on a mobile phone, and search engines penalize it.
Search engines like Google index your website similarly to how they would index any other site (even after the Mobile-First Indexing started): by looking at your URL and content on the page from which they are crawling. Suppose a user finds your site through a search engine query and clicks through to view it on their phone, but it doesn’t fit well into the screen size because you haven’t used responsive design. In that case, there’s no way for them to engage with it properly—and this could mean lost opportunities for conversion or, even worse (more traffic).
Not optimizing for local search
One of the most important factors for local businesses is getting their listings in front of potential customers on Google. When you don’t optimize for local search, it can be a missed opportunity to get your business in front of those people who are close by and searching for what you have to offer. Local search is key because:
- People want to find businesses nearby so they can walk in and buy from them
- People are willing to pay more for services when they’re local
- People will travel further if it means better service or pricing
Having an app but not promoting it
You have a great app, but you’re not doing anything to promote it. You know what they say: if you build it, they will come. But no one will ever come to your door if you don’t tell anyone about it.
App store optimization (ASO) is the art and science of ensuring that people can find your app when they search in apps like Google Play and Apple’s App Store. ASO includes optimizing your listing title and description to contain keywords that potential users might search for when looking for an app like yours, submitting reviews from satisfied users, promoting the fact that “this product has been featured,” etc. These help increase visibility among prospective customers within those stores’ searches.
You should be doing ASO on any apps you create! And if possible, make sure there are links back to your website or social media pages where customers can learn more about who made them or contact support directly from the app itself—that’s helpful for both user experience and conversion rates later on!
Conclusion
To avoid mobile SEO mistakes, it is important that you follow these bits of advice. So now that we’ve covered some of the most common pitfalls, let’s look at how you can fix them, so your website is optimized for mobile users.
