How Mobile Optimization Can Help Boost Your SEO
Optimizing your website for mobile devices is a must today. A majority of internet users access the internet through mobile devices, mostly smartphones. If your website doesn’t render completely on a small screen, chances are you could inadvertently end up driving away potential customers. On the technical side of things, lack of mobile optimization can hurt your online presence. For one, the user experience your site offers will drop if you don’t make it compatible for mobile devices.
Numbers clearly show that users today expect websites to load perfectly, regardless of the size of their screen. In fact, many visitors might access your website through both a computer and a smartphone. Coming to the numbers, close to 70% on internet users would prefer purchasing from a mobile-optimized site than one that isn’t mobile-friendly. Over 70% of users are likely to return to your website if you offer a mobile-friendly version. In addition, you can enjoy the following benefits:
Higher Search Rankings
The leading search engines, especially Google, will rank your site higher if it is mobile-friendly. Not optimizing your site for mobile could actually end up hurting your search rankings. Keep in mind that having a separate version of your site for mobile devices will not do the trick. The design of the site has to be responsive to boost your SEO.
Search Presence
Google values mobile-friendly websites, so much so that your site is unlikely to appear in the search results on mobile devices if it isn’t optimized for mobile devices. Hence, you cannot expect to generate a significant volume of traffic to your site if you don’t optimize your website for mobile.
Quick Loading
Did you know that loading time is a pertinent factor as far as SEO goes? Google is unlikely to assign much weight to your site’s SEO if users complain that it takes time to load. Today, internet users expect a website to load completely within a couple of seconds. Their short attention span means that the onus is on you to optimize your site for mobile. Generally, mobile-optimized sites load faster.
Quality Linking
Setting up quality links is easier with a mobile-friendly website. The main reason is that you can have a single, unique URL. Previously, you would have had to create a separate website for mobile devices, starting with m. domain name. You can benefit more from the links you add to and from the URL of a mobile-friendly website.
User Experience
Last, but not the least, you should place yourself in your customers’ shoes. Would you prefer viewing tiny text on your phone when you visit a website? Are you likely to consider making a purchase after the initial poor user experience? Google is all about users. Their recent algorithm updates aim at removing websites that don’t offer a solid user experience. Creating a mobile-friendly site can be a major step towards entering Google’s good books, while at the same time catering to your target audience.
As you can see, there are several ways in which optimizing your website for mobile can boost your SEO. Thus, it’s an investment worth making.