Why You Should Optimize Your Local Website for Mobile
Mobile devices are ruling the internet. From the escalating mobile-based traffic to the skyrocketing mobile ad spending, there’s no doubt that marketers and advertisers know the role mobile devices play in this era of the internet.
In fact, about 60% of all web searches were done on mobile in the year 2016. Experts say that it will continue to climb sharply in the coming years.
Reasons why mobile SEO is the future
This year, website owners and advertisers have spent $65.8 billion on mobile ads alone. Aside from the gargantuan spending, this is actually more than double of the 2015 expense of around $28.7 billion.
It looks like advertisers and marketers know well that mobile is the future of internet search. True enough, Google rolled out the mobile-first indexing algorithm recently.
Under this new indexing algorithm, web crawlers will index the mobile version of websites first before the desktop version.
As much as advertisers know this fact well, many small businesses seem to be oblivious on how much Google is committed to revolutionizing the search experience of its users.
It’s all about user experience
Aside from ranking better, mobile-responsive websites also improve the browsing experience of its users.
Come to think of it: about 88% of internet users who searched for a specific service will likely call or visit a provider within the same day.
If you don’t optimize for mobile, you’re missing an opportunity to generate warm leads, let alone increase your sales.
Failing to migrate or adhere to this new Google recommendation means you’re going to be left behind. No business wants that to happen, be it local or national.
It’s beyond the 10 blue links
During Google’s infancy, it used to show only the 10 most popular websites on the first page of the search results.
But over the years, the biggest search engine on the planet has added more features that will increase a local business’ likelihood of being seen online.
Some of these additions are Local Packs, Knowledge Graph, Google My Business, rich snippets, video clips, answer boxes, etc.
Moreover, these tools give more space to website owners so they can be seen, even if their ‘blue links’ don’t rank well on the first page.
When it comes to your mobile SEO, you shouldn’t only focus on nailing the top spot. You should also utilize other elements on the search page that will boost your online presence among your customers.
Up the ante of your content
Aside from fixing how your webpages show on mobile screens, you should also check how your content performs in terms of engagements.
For small screens, you can only have a small space. That means you should reduce scroll or use anchor links so your readers can jump in between parts of your post.
Aside from plain text, it’s also critical to use images, videos, and other multimedia content. As visual beings, humans are more absorbed in visual content. Besides, it’s rare for an internet user to spend a long time reading posts word per word.
If long posts are unavoidable, you should at least write a TL; DR at the top so your readers can scheme the gist of your content.
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