How to Survive Mobilegeddon: A Guide to Mobile SEO

Meghan Furey@meg_furey

Anthony Caccavale@VTCaccavale

@KnucklepuckDC

...and Rickrolling

Now Let’s Talk Mobile

Why is Mobile SEO Essential?More Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in

10 countries including the US and Japan. (but we all knew this...right?)

34% of online purchases happen on mobile device

This year, according to PayPal, ⅓ of Thanksgiving & Black Friday sales came

from mobile

In November 2016, Google began testing mobile-first index

Mobile page becomes primary determinant for ranking

How Much Effort Should You Focus on Your Mobile SEO?

It depends…

Is mobile crucial to your business?

What is your percentage of traffic coming from mobile? Percentage of

conversions?

Has the percentage of mobile users increased?

What Type of Mobile Site?

Responsive

Pros: One URL; Google <3; no redirects; no additional meta data

Cons: might have an issue with pagespeed; might have some coding issues

Dynamic serving

Pros: One URL; different content shown to user depending on device

Cons: Might be a little tricky from a technical standpoint (Vary: User-Agent)

Mobile content

Pagespeed

If a site loads for more than 3 seconds a user will more than likely leave

Leverage tools at your disposal...

Pagespeed Tools & Tips

Tools:

Become BFFLs with your dev team

Google Pagespeed Insights

WebPagetest

Google Analytics

Common Tips:

Compress Images

Prioritize visible content

Leverage caching

Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

The new buzzword for SEO

Brand new mobile framework

Advantages

Fast

Great if you don’t have a Dev team

Appear in mobile search carousel

Disadvantages

Still in infancy

Analytics nightmare

Interstitial Penalty

Google is trying to make mobile sites

more user friendly

Google will be “penalizing” mobile sites

using interstitials

>25% of of page

Rolled out in November 2016

There are workarounds

Yelp

Viewing Mobile on Desktop

Chrome Developer Tools

Already built into Chrome

Mimics Apple products, Responsive design, Android and Blackberry

Viewing Mobile on Desktop

User-Agent Switcher for Chrome

Chrome extension

Easier to use

Mimics Apple products, Responsive design, Android and Blackberry

Can be a bit buggy

Performance:Google Analytics

Pagespeed:Google AnalyticsGoogle Pagespeed InsightsWebPagetest

Mobile Usability:Google Search ConsoleGoogle Mobile-Friendly TestChrome Developer ToolsUser-Agent Switcher for Chrome

Mobile SEO Tools

Crawling:Screaming Frog

AMP:Google Search ConsoleValidator.AMPProject.org

Structured Data:Google Search ConsoleGoogle Structured Data Testing ToolYandex Structured Data Validator

Optimize for Local Searches

88% of smartphone users have conducted local

searches

Local searches lead 50% of mobile site visitors to visit

stores within one day

18% of local mobile searches lead to a sale within one

day

The goal = Google Map Pack

Local-Focused Content

City & State in Title Tag

City & State in Meta Description

City & State in H1

City & State in URL

Adding City & State in content

Adding City & State in relevant alt tags

Embedded Google Map

Local Citations

Local Linkbuilding

Local Blogs

Online News Sources

Community/Township Sites

Other Local Businesses

Local Related Organizations

Rich Snippets & Structured Data

Enhances organic listings

Provides additional, relevant

information for users (ex.

Business address, product

reviews, recipes)

Optimizing for Micro-moments

Mobile-Friendly Content

Offer Easy-to-Digest & Shareable Information

Headline

Summary

Short paragraphs

Images

Lists/bullets

Pointing out key takeaways (bold, italics)

Social icon for easy sharing

Title Tags

Take Advantage of Length - Up to 78 Characters!

Keyword Research

Consider Words that Convert Audience

Mobile UX

Research Your Audience

CrazyEgg.com

UserTesting.com

HotJar.com

A/B Test

Mobile UX Wins

Short Headlines

Simple Navigation Menus

Make Site Search Visible & Easy to

Use (Consider Filters)

Fat-Finger CTAs

Accordions & Drop-Down Menus

Minimize Required Fields on Forms

Click-To-Call Phone Numbers

Mobile UX

Mobile UX

Any questions?