Creating a Future Proof Mobile SEO

Strategy Patrick Altoft – Director of Search

baynote.com/infographic/mcommerce-takes-off/

What Google wants “The goal of many of our ranking changes is to help searchers find sites that provide a great user experience and fulfil their information needs. ”

Matt Cutts

Our strategy therefore is to create a better search result for our clients than their competitors.

This can be split into two simple to understand factors:

• Creating more authority & being a better/more reputable company

• Making better landing pages, specifically your primary pages

The current

CITATIONS

BUILD

CONVERSATIONS

NEWS

Sentiment

SOCIAL

Authority Relevance

Freshness

is listening to…

DESIGN

CONTENT

BLOG

Engagement

Satisfaction

Structure Quality

Great experience A great mobile site experience is becoming increasingly important, and users will keep looking for a mobile-friendly site until they find one that works for them. That means your competitors will benefit if your site falls down on the job (and vice versa).

• 61% of users said that if they didn't find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they'd quickly move on to another site

• 79% of people who don't like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site

• 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly

http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/what-users-want-most-from-mobile-sites-today.html

Bad experience It turns out that you can lose more than the sale with a bad mobile experience. A site that's not designed for mobile can leave users feeling downright frustrated, and these negative reactions translate directly to the brands themselves.

• 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that's not mobile-friendly

• 36% said they felt like they've wasted their time by visiting those sites

• 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company

• 48% said that if a site didn't work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn't care about their business

http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/what-users-want-most-from-mobile-sites-today.html

How does mobile search work?

How does Google index & rank mobile sites? When you search Google using a mobile phone you are searching the exact same index as you would on a desktop

Google clusters the desktop & mobile versions of a page and consolidates ranking signals, sending users to the most appropriate version depending on their device

Usually Google sends mobile visitors directly to the mobile version so they don’t need to be redirected

Mobile user experience & lots of other factors will determine the rankings of the domain to mobile searchers independently from desktop searchers

http://searchengineland.com/the-definitive-guide-to-mobile-technical-seo-166066

Tags

Don’t Frustrate Your Customers

Storefinders

wtfmobileweb.com

idontwantyourfuckingapp.tumblr.com

Smart App Banners This is OK

Mobile Path To Purchase

Users are not arriving via your homepage

http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key-findings.html

Store locators are very important

Having your buying guides available on mobile is very important

Mobile is growing £1m/month from a mobile site

How can you use design to improve your SEO?

How long do you have to engage a user?

3.8 seconds Jacob Nielson – useit.com

Why is this? • We all can suffer from Analysis Paralysis

• This is why we stereo type – we create mental shortcuts

• The same rules apply to your site

• This is why we find visualisations (such as info-graphics) so engaging

Your design 3.8 seconds to establish…

Relevance • Are you right for me? • Have you answered my

question?

Trust • Do you look credible? • Can I trust you with my

money?

Or else…

The user returned to search. You did not satisfy their objectives.

Return to Search You have a few seconds to get the visitors attention and persuade them that they have arrived at a site that will answer their query

If they go back to Google that’s a negative signal

Ensure your web design is

Responsive*

Google have issued clear recommendations on what it expects to see from mobile optimised websites

https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details

You have 3 options…

Fully responsive Dynamically served HTML & CSS

Mobile version

It will massively effect your performance

+100% MOBILE

CONVERSION

+20% CLICK

THROUGH RATE

+51% MOBILE

CONVERSION

+28% TRAFFIC

INCREASE

Walmart.ca

Tablet first

Mobile orders up 98%

Conversions up 20%

bit.ly/17NK6KU

Each require very specific and different methods of technical implementation. Getting it wrong could put you in the

firing line for all sorts of issues.

Mobile SEO Summary

Make you site as good as it can be, both in terms of

Design

Experience & Usability

Focus on getting the technical implementation right

Redirects

Analytics

Handling integration with apps

Make it responsive (if appropriate)

App Indexing with Android KitKat The future

How? Easy ways to go mobile

Thank you!

Please email any questions to patrick@branded3.com or get in touch via twitter.com/patrickaltoft