protect your mobile web presence
TRANSCRIPT
W A S H I N G T O N , D C | A P R I L 2 9 , 2 0 1 5
#RoadToC3
PROTECT YOUR MOBILE WEB
PRESENCE: TIPS FOR THE
PROCRASTINATOR
Gordy CasascoSearch and Social Analyst
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#RoadToC3
PROTECT YOUR MOBILE WEB PRESENCETips for the Procrastinator
• What is the Mobile Update?
• Mobile Tips by Site Type
• 3 Common Issues and How to Fix Them
• Utilizing Searchlight to Boost your Mobile Presence
#RoadToC3
WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?
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• The Announcement
• What is the Purpose?
• What Does This Mean for Sites?
• Testing for Mobile Friendliness
• Observations Since Release
• What Can We Expect Going Forward?
WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?
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#RoadToC3
WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?The Announcement
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WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?What Does This Mean for Sites?
• This update is Page based rather than Domain based
• The update should have no effect on desktop rankings
• Your site does not HAVE to be responsive to be mobile friendly
• SERP Changes• Increased focus on local results• Knowledge graph• App pack results
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WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?Testing for Mobile Friendliness
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
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WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?What is the Purpose?
• Provide better Mobile experience for searchers
• Follow the Money• Apps
• Differentiate Mobile vs. Desktop Search Experience
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WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?Observations Since the Release
• The Verdict? – Relatively Mild…• Increase of ~2-3% in days following the release for
the percentage of “Mobile Friendly” results on page one in Moz study
• Site names and breadcrumbs in search results
Source: http://moz.com/blog/day-after-mobilegeddon
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WHAT IS THE MOBILE UPDATE?What Can We Expect Going Forward?
• A Slow and Long Roll Out• Changes in Mobile SERP’s
beyond ranking• Breadcrumb/Sitename• “App Pack” Results• Expansion of answer results• Expansion of Local results
• Good news for procrastinators!• Google has indicated that
they will reprocess pages quickly
#RoadToC3
MOBILE TIPS BY SITE TYPE
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• Dedicated Mobile Sites
– Subdomain (m.example.com)
– Root Domain (example.com/mobile)
• Responsive Design
• Dynamic Serving
MOBILE TIPS BY SITE TYPE
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MOBILE TIPS BY SITE TYPEDedicated Mobile Sites
• Specifically Test your “m.” and “/mobile/” URL’s
• Use rel=alternate tags for desktop pages
• Use canonical Tags on mobile pages that correspond to the desktop rel=alternate page
• Add rel=alternate tags to your xml sitemap as well
• Offer users the option to override mobile re-direction
• Check your robots.txt!
Source: bit.ly/mobile-c3
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MOBILE TIPS BY SITE TYPEResponsive Design
• Check WMT Crawl Errors for 404’s and 500’s
• Check your robots.txt and ensure that js, css and images are crawlable
• Check Page Speed on Mobile and Desktop• https://developers.google.com
/speed/pagespeed/insights/• Note: Responsive design is
recommended by Google
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MOBILE TIPS BY SITE TYPEDynamic Serving
• Use Vary HTTP Header• Hint to search engines and mobile
bots to crawl and discover both mobile and desktop content
• Make sure the robots.txt is not blocking content• This is most important on dynamic
serving sites because the html and css will likely be different depending on user-agent
• Check Page Speed
#RoadToC3
3 COMMON ISSUES AND
HOW TO FIX THEM
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• Robots.txt Blocking JS, CSS, and Image Files
• Faulty Re-Directs
• Mobile Only 404’s
3 COMMON ISSUES AND HOW TO FIX THEM
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3 COMMON ISSUES AND HOW TO FIX THEMRobots.txt Blocking JS, CSS, and Image Files
• This seemed to be the most common issue with sites that I work with.
• Robots.txt was blocking certain js, css, and image extensions
• Direct correlation to disallow statements and “not mobile-friendly” designation
• FIX • Simplify your robots.txt• Remove unnecessary disallow
statements• Create separate disallow
statements for user-agent: googlebot
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3 COMMON ISSUES AND HOW TO FIX THEMFaulty Re-Directs
• If you have a dedicated mobile site, ensuring that proper re-directs are set up is extremely important.
• Errors and Faulty Re-Directs can slow down your site and create a negative search experience.
• FIX• Monitor Faulty Re-Directs in Google
Webmaster tools• Fix Broken Links and implement 301
Redirects• If a page on your site doesn’t have a
smartphone equivalent, keep users on the desktop page, rather than redirecting them to the smartphone site’s homepage.
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3 COMMON ISSUES AND HOW TO FIX THEMMobile Only 404’s
• Some sites serve content to desktop users accessing a URL but show an error page to mobile users.
• FIX• Use Google Webmaster
tools or Moz Crawl to find Mobile Only 404’s
• Ensure proper 301 re-directs are implemented
• Make sure that the mobile page itself is not an error page
#RoadToC3
UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST
YOUR MOBILE PRESENCE
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• Differences in Desktop and Mobile Search Behavior
• Finding Mobile Specific Keywords
• Utilizing the Visibility Explorer
UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST YOUR
MOBILE PRESENCE
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UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST YOUR
MOBILE PRESENCEDifferences in Desktop and Mobile Search Behavior
• Localized Search Results• Difference between
desktop and mobile results• Maps Results
• Immediate answers vs. research
• Interactive Results/Knowledge Graph• Ex. Weather• Ex. Sports scores
• Autocomplete
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UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST YOUR
MOBILE PRESENCEFinding Mobile Specific Keywords
• Google search interest in "near me" has increased 34X since 2011 and nearly doubled since last year.
• The vast majority come from mobile-80% in Q4 2014.2
• The search interest for terms that include “near me”, “closest”, and “nearby” have exploded in the last few years.
Source: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/features/i-want-to-go-micro-moments.html
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UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST YOUR
MOBILE PRESENCEUtilizing the Visibility Explorer
Tips:• Click “Unmanaged”• Sort by Search Volume
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UTILIZING SEARCHLIGHT TO BOOST YOUR
MOBILE PRESENCEUtilizing the Visibility Explorer
Tips:• Search for “near”, “nearby”,
or “closest”• Sort by Search Volume
GORDY CASASCOSearch and Social Analyst, Oracle
(202) 294-2813
IG: pgcasasco
gordycasasco.com