Photo by Maxim Ilyahov

Originally Posted On: https://zivvymarketing.com/mobile-friendly-seo-tips-to-help-your-business-reach-more-customers/

When you picture a customer finding the website for your business, you probably think of someone using a desktop computer or laptop. But the truth is that many people are searching and shopping from their phones or other mobile devices. In fact, mobile web traffic has consistently accounted for all web traffic worldwide since the beginning of 2017.

What’s more, ignoring consumers who view your website via their mobile device can have dire consequences. Mobile users are more likely to abandon a site if it doesn’t provide a consistent viewing experience — and since mobile users are often more ready to make a purchase, that can mean leaving a lot of money on the table.

Although there are many steps you can take to ensure you aren’t leaving mobile customers out of the equation, we’d encourage you to take a closer look at your internet marketing — specifically, at your search engine optimization. SEO provides you with a greater chance of reaching your target customer, so optimizing with mobile in mind can potentially make a huge difference for your business. Wondering how to incorporate mobile-friendly SEO into your internet marketing plan? Here are a few tips to help get you started.

Speed Up Your Site

As any SEO agency will tell you, a website that loads quickly is always going to be better for search rankings than a slow-loading site. But site speed is especially important to mobile users. It’s so important, in fact, that Google’s 2018 speed update included speed as a mobile search ranking factor — which means you should speed up the loading time of your pages if you want to improve your position in SERPs. Don’t forget that when mobile users become frustrated with slow-loading pages, they’re likely to abandon the site altogether; this can impact your bounce rate and time spent on page stats, which won’t help your rankings. If you want to capture the attention of mobile users, don’t give them a reason to hit the “back” button.

Optimize For Local and Voice Searches

Mobile users conduct search queries a bit differently than those who use personal computers. When you search for a product, service, or business on your phone, you’re more likely to be on-the-go. You may want a solution that’s close by. You might not even be using your hands to type! Local SEO, which involves optimizing a website to target customers within a certain location, is one aspect of internet marketing you should consider if you want to reach mobile customers. If you have a brick-and-mortar location, this can be a great way to appear more prominently in relevant search results within your area. Your digital marketing agency may also recommend that you optimize for voice search, which often involves the use of long-tail keywords or search terms and full question statements to align with how users interact with digital assistants (like Siri and Alexa). The more closely your optimizations align with the intent of mobile users, the more effective your internet marketing strategy will be.

Ensure Your Site is Responsive

The design of your site actually plays a big role in supporting your SEO. And if you want to appeal to mobile users, you need to ensure that your site provides consistency and ease of navigation when being viewed on smartphones and other devices. This may involve redesigning your whole website if your current design doesn’t lend itself to mobile interaction. However, it may be well worth the investment when you consider that Google now prioritizes mobile first indexing. Although some businesses have separate mobile sites, your internet marketing agency may recommend that you switch to one site that automatically adjusts depending on what device is being used to view it.

Given how much we all rely on our smartphones and mobile devices, it’s clear that the trend of mobile search isn’t going anywhere. In order to compete in the digital age, your business will need to make necessary adjustments to appeal to mobile users. For more information on how we can help, please contact Zivvy today.