Mobile SEO & its Importance to Local SEO
Mobile SEO & its Importance to Local SEO
One thing that most business owners can agree on is the fact that search engine optimisation is critical in the current day and age. However, to make matters confusing, SEO is changing all of the time. This is not a landscape that remains stagnant. We are continuously moving forward, and this is represented by the fact that we’re now living in a mobile-first age of SEO.
Google have announced themselves that mobile websites are being prioritised when determining a site’s search engine ranking. This is why mobile optimisation is something that all businesses need to give their attention to. Below, we will delve deeper into this, as well as looking at the relationship between mobile SEO and local search.
What is mobile SEO?
Mobile SEO is the practice of optimising your mobile content so that it ranks higher on the search engine result pages. The process is all about improving organic traffic.
Why is mobile SEO so important?
Well, there are a number of reasons…
1. Mobile search is increasing all of the time – There is only one place to begin, and this is with the fact that more and more people are making search engine queries on their mobile phones. In fact, mobile searches have exceeded desktop searches for quite some time now, so this isn’t really a new trend. It is a solidified one, and so it means that a lot of your target consumers are going to be using their smartphones to locate your content. You need to enhance mobile SEO to ensure that they are able to do exactly that.
2. Mobile search drives sales – There are a number of pieces of research that have been carried out by Google that support that mobile is driving presale searches. Google have revealed that mobile searches that incorporate the word “best” have risen by 80 per cent over the past two years. The search engine giant has also revealed that people spend roughly 50,0000 years of watch time looking at video reviews and that there has been a 35 per cent increase over the past two years in mobile searches for product reviews.
3. Your search engine ranking on Google is highly impacted by your mobile content – Google has switched to a mobile-first index. This basically means that the mobile content of your website is being used to decipher your ranking on Google. So, if you have not considered mobile SEO, your ranking is going to suffer, even if you have invested heavily in optimising the desktop version of your website.
4. You can futureproof your SEO strategy with mobile optimisation – This is because voice search is becoming more and more popular at the moment, mirroring the rise of mobile SEO. At the moment, 62 per cent of businesses are not using mobile SEO to optimise for voice search. This presents an opportunity for your business to get involved and gain a competitive advantage.
The relationship between local SEO and mobile SEO
It is also important to consider the relationship between mobile optimisation and local searches. When people conduct searches on their mobile phone, it is not uncommon for these searches to be local. Think about it: you may be on your way to work and so you ask Google for the nearest petrol station on the way. Or, you could be out shopping and want to find what store has the product you are looking for in-stock. Local searches like this are almost always conducted by people using their smartphones because they are on-the-go.
When you consider the fact that a huge number of local searches are going to be carried out on smartphones, it is not difficult to see that there is a clear relationship between mobile content optimisation and local searches. If you do not ingrain mobile SEO into your local optimisation strategy, you are going to struggle to be effective.
Optimising your website for local search on mobile
As you can see, local SEO and mobile SEO are a match made in heaven. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you localize your SEO efforts. This is not only about changing a geographical region, city, state, or headline of your business. You need to focus more on a smaller locale and neighbourhood. This includes everything from confirming your business location to cleaning a business location. You also need to manage local-centric social media engagement, online ratings, and reviews as well.
Ensuring that your website is mobile-friendly is critical. There is a Mobile-Friendly Test that has been implemented by Google, so using this is a good place to start. You also need to make sure that you have a responsive website, and you should check out your desktop and mobile rankings so that you can keep on top of the performance of your online presence across all devices.
Finally, it is imperative to make sure that you promote the right prices. Adding a canonical attribute so that you can prevent duplicate content issues from occurring is critical. Breadcrumb navigation is also important when optimizing your mobile site for local searches. This is an excellent visual aid of showing the user’s location within your site’s hierarchy. It is especially important for mobile devices, which are a lot smaller and can, therefore, be more difficult to use when browsing the Internet.
All in all, there is no denying that in order to master the realm of SEO in 2020, there are two key areas that need to be focused on: local search and mobile SEO.
We hope that you have enjoyed this insight into the importance of mobile SEO and the relationship between mobile optimisation and local SEO. If your business is to be successful online in 2020, it is imperative that you keep up with the times and you understand the changes that are being made in search engine optimisation. If you don’t, your business is only going to get left behind while other companies flourish.
Direct Submit are a UK based digital marketing agency that specialises in all things SEO. Set up over 15-years ago, we have been continually adjusting and tweaking our proprietary SEO strategies, which has made us leaders in our industry.
Get in touch with Direct Submit today on 0845 272 2350 and we can discuss your digital marketing strategy with you and find ways to improve your SEO rankings. Don’t neglect this important aspect of your marketing strategy because you could be missing out on a lot of potential website traffic and sales.