Optimizing your website for mobile is a must in 2017.
Besides entertaining apps, users are looking for solutions, researching businesses and navigating with their smartphones. As smartphones become increasingly integrated into our lives and business, it only makes sense that search engines want to improve the mobile search experience.
Smartphones come in varying sizes, with different capabilities that can impact the way your web pages appear on a mobile screen or tablet, which offer less screen space than a desktop or laptop. Connectivity issues can arise if your site is poorly configured, your hardware needs updating, or your host provider lacks reliable networking/security.
Is Mobile SEO Important?
Mobile marketing research from comScore and KPCB has shown astounding market growth in mobile usage year over year since 2008. Data from 2015 revealed that 51 per cent of users spend approximately 2.8 hrs or more interacting with their smartphone, compared to only 12 per cent of users in 2008. Automotive, Home & Garden, and Apparel & Beauty categories dominate 48 per cent of mobile searches.
Researching mobile trends will give you a decided advantage over local competitors who overlook the benefits of mobile SEO. Although conversion rates for mobile still lag behind desktop, we’re likely to see an increase in smartphone purchases as access and online security improve globally.
Get a head start on your mobile optimization, and start with these 6 key tips for mobile SEO in 2017:
Most website builders and blog platforms use a responsive design that adapts fluidly to either desktop or mobile. Responsive design automatically optimizes the layout and orientation of your site to suit the appropriate screen. To communicate with web crawlers the specific media features of your web pages, CSS3 media queries are attached to the style sheet of your web pages, making it easier to alter their appearance without affecting the content.
Flash or javascript may not be available on your user’s device, which means your fancy special effects won’t get noticed. HTML5 is a better, SEO-friendly alternative.
Schema.org is a structured data mark-up tool that’s universally recognized by web crawlers (Google, Bing, Yahoo). Facebook has its own structured mark-up tool called OpenGraph, which will work with Schema.org, but you can’t substitute OpenGraph for Schema because your mark-up won’t be recognized by any of the major search engines.
Get more great mobile SEO tips from Paul Teitelman in Toronto today!
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