What is mobile SEO?
Mobile search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of affecting your organic search visibility on mobile phones and other handheld devices. Mobile SEO is a branch of search engine optimisation that focuses on making a website mobile friendly and make sure that search engines can crawl, index and rank mobile content in its mobile search results.
Why optimise your mobile website?
In response to mobile searches exceeding desktop searches globally, Google has launched a mobile friendly algorithm, which means that having a mobile friendly website is a ranking factor in mobile search. Other leading search engines like Bing, Yandex, and Baidu have made similar announcements.
Early in 2018, Google launched its mobile-first index, which means that over time, ranking signals switch from desktop to the mobile version of the content.
Growing changes means that it is crucial for any website to make sure that it is not only mobile friendly, but also mobile-first index ready. Otherwise it could have a long-term impact on your organic search visibility, traffic, and sales.
Why invest in mobile search?
It should be no secret that smartphones across the globe are the most popular device for accessing the internet. According to the Ofcom Market Report 2017, users are accessing the internet across multiple devices but are spending more time on smartphones to browse.
Google’s mobile path to purchase report across nine different industries found a key moment for mobile research starts with search engines.
The report also found that mobile research influences purchase decisions, as 93% of people in the survey reported using mobile to research products, before going onto make a purchase decision.
It is not only important to optimise your mobile website to rank higher in search engines, but smartphones are crucial within the customer buying cycle across multiple verticals. This means that having a fast and seamless user experience is also a critical factor which needs to be optimised.