While you might have designed your website with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind, did you consider how your website will perform in a mobile search?  With more than 57% of all internet usage now being performed on mobile phones and tablets, ensuring your website can be found through mobile search is critical.

Using mobile optimization you can give your company an advantage over your competitors, get found faster by appearing in mobile search results, and engage with more users.

Why Mobile SEO is Important

So what is mobile optimization?  In a nutshell, it is a process that ensures your website is mobile-friendly by providing an optimal mobile experience.  You can handle this through either responsive design or mobile-first design (check out our blog on the difference and find out what’s best for your company).

Google has a specific formula they use to decide if a website is mobile-friendly.  Some of the factors they take into consideration include:

• if your site uses HTML5 or if it’s still using Flash (hint…Flash is bad for mobile)
• if your viewpoint metatag is configured to rescale for various mobile devices
• if your web pages use relative-width and content that fits the smaller screens instead of fixed-width
• if users are able to easily use touch elements (like clicking on a button)
• if your website has pop-up turned off for mobile and tablet users
• if your pages have a fast page load time (3 seconds or less)

You can give your company an additional advantage by optimizing your mobile version for local searches.  Searching by “near me” is a common practice for mobile users, so make sure your website has a consistent address and contact information anywhere it’s listed on the web.

Need help getting your website properly optimized for mobile search?  Contact SBOS Web Solutions, a St. Louis digital agency that knows how to optimize websites for mobile search and how to create UX designs that keep users engaged and coming back for more.