In our first installment, we looked at how to configure your site, make it fast, and design specifically for mobile search engine optimization. We are going to continue the conversation now with four more SEO tips for mobile.
Create Great Titles and Meta Descriptions
A search result (also known as a snippet) is usually composed of the title and meta description of a page. Because it is what people see when they conduct a search, it’s important that it be good! Optimize your titles and meta descriptions, being sure they are descriptive, concise, and include keywords. Avoid duplicate title tags and meta descriptions.
Stand Out with Rich Snippets
Add Schema.org structured data to your mobile site to help search engines highlight your pages in search results. Structured data allows search engines to pull functional and visual elements from your site and display them as rich snippets. These rich snippets provide specific information to users like products, events, reviews, contact information, etc. Rich snippets visually enhance search results, helping your site stand out amongst the rest, making it more enticing and clickable.
Show up in Local Search
Part of the beauty of mobile phones is that we can use them while out and about. And we do. More and more people are making searches that include the phrase “near me,” so it’s more important than ever to have your business show up on mobile in local search results. Use these tips to optimize for local search.
- Create/Claim Your Google My Business Listing- This will help your site appear in Search and on Google Maps. Google My Business allows you to provide useful information about your business like your phone number, address, and business hours to searchers. You can also upload photos, respond to reviews, create posts, and more!
- Include Business Location Info- It’s important that your business’s name, address, and phone number is listed on your site in crawlable HTML. (Don’t make the mistake of putting this info in an image search engines can’t read!) If you have more than one location, create location pages with each business’s name, address, phone number, hours, and any other relevant store-specific info.
- Write for Locals- Have content on your site for your local audience. Be a resource for local news and local events within your industry, targeting local keywords in titles, headlines, and throughout your content.
Keep It Crawlable
Let search engines know your site is mobile-friendly by giving them access to your page’s resources. Don’t block information such as CSS, JavaScript, or images from web crawler software. Search engines need to be able to crawl your site to determine if it can be served to mobile searchers. Plus, Google uses mobile-first indexing, so having your mobile site accessible is very important for SEO.
As with regular SEO, mobile SEO is most effective when targeted through multiple avenues. Implementing the tips outlined above, as well as the ones from our previous blog, will enhance your mobile site and help improve your search rankings.