Nowadays, search engines like Google mostly (if not “exclusively”) rely on mobile devices to index, rank, and serve web content.

To explain mobile SEO services, we will first share a comprehensive concept definition. Then, we will detail their importance, benefits, and strategies to implement efficient mobile SEO.

What is Mobile SEO?

Mobile search engine optimization services allow the mobile version of your website to rank at the top of organic Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

Mobile SEO ensures that your web pages comply with the latest digital marketing techniques. It includes:

    • local SEO
    • mobile-friendliness of the website content
    • mobile search rankings
    • voice search optimization
    • website’s loading speed on smartphones

Overall, mobile SEO improves your website performance on small devices.

Smartphone illustrations for mobile SEO

Mobile SEO definition

Mobile SEO gathers digital techniques that make your website compliant with smartphone devices. For example, it allows web spiders to access the mobile version of your domain.

Besides, mobile optimization enhances website content’s visibility and search rankings on smartphones. It is a continuous process involving various activities that we will detail below.

Mobile SEO (Search Engine Optimization) differs from mobile ASO (App Store Optimization). While mobile SEO focuses on optimizing your website on small screen formats, mobile ASO relates to mobile applications.

Mobile SEO importance

What makes mobile SEO important? It starts from the website development phase. No developer should ignore the smartphone version when building a new online platform.

All websites must prioritize mobile devices. For example, Google follows the “mobile-first” or even “mobile-only” framework. What does not exist on mobile may not exist at all.

People spend most of their internet time on smartphones. Data show that online users search more on mobile than on desktop.

Illustrated person standing in front of a smartphone

We are more likely to trust and buy from a mobile-friendly website. No one would purchase from a website that poorly displays on smartphones.

Focusing on mobile SEO is putting the priority on the online user experience. It matches the algorithm goals and maximizes your chance of engaging online prospects.

Mobile SEO benefits

The advantages of mobile SEO are:

    • increasing online audience reach
    • improving online visibility
    • driving more organic traffic
    • boosting conversion rates
    • catching audiences near the business
    • staying ahead of the competition
    • establishing your brand as an industry leader

Mobile friendliness is a crucial ranking factor. As mobile pages get a higher audience reach than desktop search, businesses with a website should enjoy those benefits.

Key Elements of Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO performance depends on three key factors:

    • mobile responsiveness
    • optimization for mobile searches
    • content marketing for mobile visitors

We will break down them in the next sections.

Mobile-friendly site design and development

As explained above, mobile SEO starts from the website development phase. We must ensure the domain is mobile-optimized to provide a great user experience.

A mobile SEO company like Viet Agency can design mobile platforms that meet search engine standards. To achieve this, we always develop each website for mobile devices first.

Old-school developers persist in creating websites suitable for desktops and adjusting for smartphones. They follow the logic “What can do more can do less.”

However, mobile SEO experts know that “cutting” a desktop version to create mobile websites is not the answer. Designers must think “mobile only” before declining to bigger versions.

A responsive web design ensures your online platform looks great on all devices, including phones and tablets.

Viet Agency website displayed on various screens

Mobile search optimization

To make your mobile site more visible online, you must consider these items:

    • is the smartphone version of my website crawlable by bots?
    • do search algorithms index my mobile content?
    • is my structured data optimized for smartphones?
    • does Google display my content on mobile SERPs?
    • does my website have great loading speed on mobile phones?

In 2016, Google served Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) in mobile search results. This framework helped web pages load faster on mobile devices.

Those Accelerated Mobile Pages were deprecated a few years later. However, it demonstrates the will of browsers to serve easy-to-consume content on small screen sizes.

In the next section, we will see how to identify mobile optimization issues and how to fix them.

Content optimization for mobile users

The last key element of mobile SEO is content optimization dedicated to smartphone users. It involves adjusting the website content for mobile search engines.

Mobile users have different expectations than desktop ones. Your web content must be optimized accordingly.

Here is the ultimate checklist for mobile content optimization:

    • choosing relevant keywords for mobile
    • creating mobile-friendly content, easy to read on smaller screens
    • optimizing content for mobile-specific key phrases
    • updating web page metadata (title tags, meta descriptions, subheadings, etc.)
    • making the mobile content suitable for local search
    • using bullet points
    • breaking down the mobile content in short sentences and paragraphs
    • keeping concise language
    • uploading visuals (images and videos)
    • having large touch areas

Viet Agency can help you run an effective mobile SEO campaign. We will detail below how we optimize your content for mobile phones.

Mobile SEO Audit and Analysis

Mobile SEO audits differ from desktop checkups. We will list below the mobile-specific process and action plan to conduct such analysis.

Mobile SEO process

To identify mobile SEO issues and opportunities, we need specific software. As Google covers over 90% of the worldwide search engine market, we cannot go wrong with its toolkit.

Illustrated persons working on a giant device

Start your mobile SEO audit with the Google mobile-friendly test. It tells how responsive the mobile website is.

Then, use the Google Search Console mobile usability function. It points to the main issues to fix to improve the mobile visibility of the website.

From this analysis, the next step is to prepare the action plan. It lists what to fix for mobile SEO improvements. Here is a checklist:

    • mobile web pages crawlability
    • mobile loading time
    • mobile user experience (UX)
    • web responsiveness on the mobile site

Mobile SEO experts must share actionable recommendations to improve your mobile traffic.

Mobile SEO action plan

The mobile audit from the previous step shapes the to-do list below.

Overall, the desktop SEO rules apply to mobile, but with higher constraints. For example, we accept a loading time of 2 seconds on computers. For the mobile website, such loading must be under 1 second.

The website shall be user-friendly. Typically, it is challenging to guarantee great mobile UX as small devices are technically limited. It includes:

    • screen size
    • ratio
    • interactivity
    • user interface
    • graphics processing unit (GPU)
    • central processing unit (CPU)
    • touch areas
    • font sizes
    • etc.

The mobile-first index became a crucial ranking factor for all websites. Ensure your smartphone version remains easy to read and navigate.

Mobile SEO Strategies

The best way to improve the Google search results for your mobile audience is to consider these 3 SEO strategies:

    • mobile-first indexing
    • mobile design
    • local SEO

We will clarify each of them below.

Mobile-first indexing

Mobile-first indexing is a crucial aspect of mobile SEO. It ensures that search engines properly crawl and store your web content in their database.

Before 2020, it was common to hide mobile content to focus on desktop content only, as it was more complete. Nowadays, such practice doesn’t work anymore. Website content must be optimized for mobile devices first.

The search engine algorithms have evolved. They prioritize mobile content like the social media platforms do. Web developers and digital marketing experts must adjust their strategies accordingly.

Mobile design

If you build your website from scratch, design the mobile site first, then craft the desktop version.

If you already have a website and cannot afford to revamp it, start with an SEO audit to roadmap your mobile design fixes. Once you identify the gaps, you can implement the changes for improved search engine rankings.

S and XL sizes of a smartphone screen

You need a graphic designer and a web developer to complete this task. The designer will prepare the new visual directions while the developer will code them to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.

Local SEO for mobile users

Voice search queries and web browsing on the spot are growing trends. There are more and more online users accessing web pages on mobile platforms.

Local SEO answers this demand. It supports businesses targeting specific geographic regions.

Click on the link above to learn more about local SEO opportunities. From optimizing your local keywords to updating your Google Business Profile, we can help you with our professional mobile SEO services.

Mobile SEO Tools and Resources

To implement mobile-friendly SEO on your website, you need specific tools. Most are similar to desktop SEO, but you use different functionalities.

Top mobile SEO tools and software

There are plenty of SEO tools dedicated to mobile devices. By experience, Viet Agency guarantees that you only need a few to succeed.

Here are the 7 best mobile SEO tools:

You won’t need more to improve your organic mobile performance. Our mobile SEO service experts cover all needs for mobile search engine optimization.

Best mobile SEO documentation

The internet doesn’t lack mobile SEO documentation. However, most of this content is unreliable.

To crawl deeper into the world of mobile SEO, we recommend these 3 sources:

They come from people who know what they are talking about.

However, the best way to learn about SEO is to ask our team of professionals at Viet Agency!

Measuring Mobile SEO Success

To measure mobile SEO strategy success, we break down the global website traffic performance. Analytics show desktop, mobile, and tablet organic results. We can filter them.

Analytics and performance measurement

To track mobile SEO performance, we list all the metrics we want to follow.

The best key performance indicators (KPIs) for mobile SEO success are:

    • mobile keyword rankings
    • mobile impressions (from SERP)
    • mobile clicks (from SERP)
    • mobile traffic
    • mobile engagement rate
    • mobile conversion rate
    • mobile page speed

The tools we listed previously track those metrics. We recommend leveraging them by crafting dashboards and reports.

Viet Agency can also adjust your mobile SEO strategy based on the data we collect for you.

12 mobile SEO best practices

Steal our mobile SEO checklist! Here are the 12 mobile SEO best practices:

    1. optimize your mobile loading time
    2. avoid pop-ups and flash
    3. do not block CSS, JavaScript, and images
    4. integrate responsive design
    5. change the desktop top navigation bar for a hamburger menu
    6. embed videos through a hosting provider (like YouTube)
    7. focus on content rather than top hero images
    8. adapt the User Interface (UI) to mobile
    9. limit the keyword use for mobile users
    10. write content for your local audience
    11. follow the principle of parsimony
    12. resize your mobile content font to 16 pixels minimum

The right way to display content on mobile devices

Smartphone users are impatient. Keep your loading time under 1 second.

Google does not recommend using interstitials like pop-ups on mobile. They penalize websites having full-screen pop-ups, so watch out!

In the 2010s, developers blocked heavy files like CSS, JavaScript, and images on mobile, while they displayed normally on desktop. It is wrong for standard mobile performance today.

All websites should be mobile-responsive. Avoid alternatives like creating different URLs for the mobile and desktop versions.

Due to the small screen sizes, mobile devices cannot display desktop top navigation bars. The (ham)burger menu is a decent solution.

Do not self-host videos on your website. It has a considerable impact on page loading performance, especially on mobile. Embed through YouTube instead.

We all love visual creatives. Unfortunately, they take up lots of space on mobile, which is scarce. Reduce your top header images (or remove them on mobile) to focus on text content.

Space competition is fierce on small screen sizes. Design clear buttons, navigation indicators, and visual feedback. Keep enough space for (big) fingers with buffers and margins.

Desktop keyboards are convenient. Mobile keyboards are not. Build your mobile web versions so online users don’t need to interact with the keyboard often.

Segment your content production based on your target audience. Desktop users and mobile users are not the same. Besides, people using smartphones engage more with geolocated information.

Unlike desktop devices, only focus on the most important content and remove the rest.

On mobile, small text fonts are unreadable. To keep online users comfortable, set your font sizes to 16 pixels at least. Bigger fonts for titles are fine.

Viet Agency – Professional Mobile SEO Services

Viet Agency offers mobile SEO services to businesses of all sizes and industries.

We are your digital marketing partner for your mobile revolution. Choosing the best mobile SEO company is crucial to guarantee great organic performance.

Our mobile SEO services include the following:

    • market research
    • competitive benchmark
    • mobile core web vital audit
    • mobile SERP analysis
    • structured data optimizations for mobile
    • mobile-friendly content optimization

However, the best mobile SEO service in the world is nothing without tech support. Viet Agency SEO needs your mobile development team to follow our guidelines for implementation.

Our team of SEO experts cumulates decades of experience with mobile SEO services. Send your website URL to receive a free mobile SEO audit.

Contact our mobile SEO consultants to get started!