When it comes to on-page SEO, you need to design a site first for mobile users, then focus on adding the elements that will make a site user-friendly for PC visitors as well. If you don’t have your site SEO for mobile use, it can hurt you in the search engine rankings. Do you want to see a higher ranking in the search results? If so, you need to focus on your mobile site design first.
Making Your Site Configuration Mobile-friendly and Responsive
If your website is already SEO for mobile use and has the same content and markup as a desktop version, you are good to go.
What are the factors that Google uses to determine if it is indeed mobile friendly?
- Does it show content well on a phone?
- Does it require/need pinching/zooming?
- Is it easily readable on small screens?
- Is it easy to navigate with a finger?
- Is it helpful to someone using a phone?
- Is it understood properly by Google (properly formatted)?
What You Should Ask | SEO for Mobile
Otherwise, you need to determine your goals for a mobile site. Ask the following questions:
- What do you believe your visitors will want when navigating your site?
- What do you want them to have the ability to do?
- What do you need to have happen to realize your goals?
- How much time can you devote to creating a mobile-friendly site?
- What are your resources?
Your ultimate goal is to create a responsive mobile-friendly design. Therefore, you need to learn what is considered a responsive UX design SEO for mobile.
Creating a Responsive Website Design
A responsive website enables a user to look at any electronic’s screen without difficulty. Therefore, responsive websites adapt their layouts to the window size and browser. While the site is customized for everything on a page, it still remains similar on an SEO for mobile devices and PC. The same HTML code and URL are used as well.
A responsive design is simple to maintain and keep updated, as it is easy to configure. To build a responsive design, the site must be set up so it looks good on both a PC and mobile. Therefore, to save money, you might begin with the pages that receive the most mobile traffic.
First, Identify the Content
This means you have to know something about creating a multi-device site. Basically, you need to first identify the content you will need and want to provide users. Next, you will need to sketch out the information architecture or IA for both wide and narrow viewports.
Finally, you will need to produce a skeleton view of a page featuring content without any style elements included. This site-building exercise will help you better understand UX or responsive user designs.
Implementing a Dynamic Design
By being mobile-friendly, you may also opt for a dynamic design or a more customized approach for your website’s configuration. If you choose this design, you can optimize your site for different search queries or provide specific experiences on your mobile site.
As a result, you can create several versions of a page for a single URL. Do you want to target different audiences? If so, you may want to use this configuration for SEO for mobile sites. While you won’t have to request a full redesign of your site, you will need to update and maintain a dynamic design more often. Google offers guidelines for creating a dynamic service website, which you can access here.
Setting Up a Separate URL
Instead of creating a responsive design that works with the same URL for your mobile platform and PC site, you might set up a separate URL for your mobile site. Therefore, your SEO for a mobile-friendly site will exist on a separate URL.
The site will usually sit on a subdomain and will look the same as the PC site. As with a dynamic site, you will have to do additional maintenance. However, having a separate URL does allow you to create a more definitive SEO for mobile experience. It can leave your site more vulnerable to technical issues too.
Preventing a Problem with Duplication of Content
To avoid a problem with duplication of content, you will need to include rel=” canonical” and rel=” alternate” tags in the code so that the SEO for mobile page is a version of the desktop page. All the redirects should be kept to a minimum to prevent any drag on loading. You can learn more about Google’s recommendations for producing a mobile-friendly site using a different URL here.
Sticking with Your PC Design & Making it Responsive
You can still create a desktop version, even in today’s mobile-friendly environment. While you may potentially lose a lot of mobile site traffic, it is still better to have a desktop site that is fully functional. Your desktop can still be searched with a mobile device. Therefore, you can check to see if your site’s content is accessible by using a tool, such as Google Search Console, and reviewing the SEO for mobile usability findings.
Alternatively, you can keep the desktop design and work on making it mobile responsive as much as you can. A mobile responsive design is best to be designed with mobile-first in mind, rather than working backward. But if you already have a killer desktop website that you like, then don’t shy away from this method.
Resolving the Technical Issues
Whichever option you plan to use, you will need to make sure everything works as it should. Set up a site audit to see if you need to resolve any technical issue, such as duplicate content, meta descriptions, broken links, or redirect chains.
Whatever you choose to do will depend on the resources you have available. To make the most of your resources, you just need to make sure that you have all the technical issues addressed regardless of the configuration you end up using.
Mobile-friendly and PC Search Terms
Also, don’t forget to distinguish between the keywords you use for your PC and mobile sites. The search terms are usually different. Therefore, your keywords for your mobile site will usually vary from what you use for a PC site. If you are currently not SEO for mobile, you need to start doing something about it now. Unfortunately, your competitors have probably already begun. Don’t be left behind when making site changes. “Mobile” is the keyword that will increase the traffic to your website.
What Do You Think? | SEO for Mobile
What do you think? Do you believe it is easier to go with responsive website design? Have you already implemented this site design so users can view your copy from different viewports? Has it greatly increased your traffic? Google has unfolded mobile-friendly indexing, so now is the time to make sure your site is upgraded and can be accessed by mobile and PC users alike.
