The mobile Internet is no longer a new technology—it’s a fact of life. In fact, it’s projected that within the next few years, there will be more smartphones on the planet than people. If you already have a mobile website for your business, you’re a step ahead of the game. But is your site SEO optimized for mobile searches?
Mobile: Searching differently
Whether you have a separate mobile website, a mobile-friendly site, or a regular website that’s not particularly geared for mobile viewing, there are millions of people out there searching for businesses like yours on their smartphones and tablets. However, they’re not necessarily using the same keywords as traditional site visitors.
With mobile searches, location is a primary influence. Most users are looking for businesses in close proximity to wherever they happen to be, and they’ll expect to find directions, a map, and a phone number.
Make sure the contact number listed on your website is a clickable link, so visitors can click to call without having to shut down their browsers. If they have to manually dial, they’ll usually just look for another business that’s easier to call from a mobile device.
The disadvantage of smaller screens
With a website viewed on a computer, you’re doing great if your search engine ranking puts you on the first page, or within the top 10 search results. Even the second page, or the top 20, is still pretty good. But mobile devices are a different story.
Because of the small screens, only two or three search results are displayed at a time on most smartphones, and usually four to six for tablets. This means your business has to really climb the search engine ranks in order for mobile keywords to get first viewing.
Quick tips for mobile optimization
Here are a few ideas for increasing the mobile visibility of your business:
- Make sure you have either a mobile-friendly website, or a separate website that’s designed specifically for mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets will still render non-optimized websites on a mobile device, which can easily result in an unreadable mess and lost visitors.
- Strengthen the location-based keywords on your website, so you can capture more visitors in your area who are looking for businesses like yours.
- Keep in mind that there are unique indexes geared for mobile users on most major search engines, including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google offers a mobile keyword tool within AdWords that will deliver mobile-friendly suggestions.
- Keep your content relevant and fresh, with descriptive titles and unique meta descriptions. The basic principles of SEO marketing still apply to mobile searches.
When you practice good mobile SEO, you’ll capture more of the ever-expanding mobile user market.