5 Ways to Boost Mobile Search Rankings

We’re at the half-way point of 2017. This is the year Google made some major changes to its search algorithms, including lowering ranking on pages not easily accessible to mobile users. Now might be a good time to reassess where your site stands in mobile search rankings. Today, well over half of searches are initiated on mobile devices. If you’re in an industry like food and beverage, healthcare, automotive, or retail, that number could rise to 72 percent, according to research by Hitwise. If your site doesn’t pass the mobile-friendly test, you could be missing out on some serious traffic. But when it comes to mobile search, mobile friendliness is just the starting point. People search differently on mobile, with more voice search and more local intent. Those variables call for new tactics. Here are some recent mobile developments and what you should be doing: 1. Mobile-Only Index Many mobile websites contain less content than their desktop counterparts. With most people searching with a mobile device, that’s caused Google to rethink its approach. Moving forward, its algorithms will primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank it in search results. Those with responsive sites, where the content and markup is the same across mobile and desktop, will have the advantage. But even then, you may need to adjust to accommodate mobile searchers. Today, voice search makes up almost 20 percent of all searches. And the words they use are typically different than what they might type into a browser. That may make you want to rethink your SEO approach. What should you do? • If your mobile website content is lightweight compared to your desktop site, consider moving to a responsive site. • Use long-tail keywords and optimize titles and meta descriptions for natural language queries. 2. Interstitial Ads We’ve all seen these giant pop-ups that display an offer, ask you to download an App or sign up for an e-newsletter. They’re easily dismissed on the desktop but when translated to the smaller mobile screen they can be downright annoying. For 2017, Google made it clear that mobile sites that continue to show intrusive interstitials could see their search rankings drop. What Google doesn’t want to see is pop-ups that cover the main content, making it inaccessible to the user. Exceptions are legal notices, like cookie usage or age verification, and login screens for paid services. What should you do? • If you use banners on your mobile site, ensure they use a “reasonable” amount of screen space and don’t push content below the fold. • Always include an easy-to-find “no thanks” opt-out message. 3. HTTP vs. HTTPS It used to be that Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) was only necessary for e-commerce or sites that store highly sensitive information. To increase the security and privacy of all its searchers, Google has recommended that every site use this more secure protocol. Today, it uses it as a ranking factor signal, which means your ranking could get a bump if you have it. If your visitors use Chrome as their browser, not having HTTP could scare them away. This year, Chrome began putting “not secure” warnings in the URL browser bar. What should you do? • Install a Secure Socket Layer certificate (the protocol that HTTPS uses) to ensure that data between your Web server and browser remains private and secure. • Ensure links, including hosted images, are to secure sites. 4. Local Search Because a good chunk of mobile searches have local intent, it’s even more important to claim — and optimize — your Google My Business and other business pages. As “near me” search inquiries increase, retailers and companies that provide local services stand a much better chance of making it on the search result map or rich snippet (more info on that below). But don’t stop there. The Internet is full of business listings that can increase your visibility. The more places you are listed, the more search engines will trust the accuracy of the information. In the U.S., four primary aggregators compile data from these listings and syndicate it to search engines. Infogroup, Neustar Localeze, Acxiom, and factual search phone books, business group rosters, public information and the like that gather data on millions of businesses across the country. But because these local citations are constantly updating, correct listings can be overwritten with erroneous data. What should you do? • Claim your Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, Internet Yellow Pages and Yahoo! Local pages. • Submit your business data to the four major local data aggregators. • Consider using a citation service that will clean up your business listings across the Internet and keep them correct. 5. Rich snippets As search engines get smarter at understanding search intent, we’ve seen more snippets of information in search results. It might be a definition, a Wikipedia entry or a business listing with location image and location. They give quick answers so searchers don’t have to wade through results to find the information they seek. Their visibility has continued to increase since they were first introduced in 2009. Expect continued expansion in 2017. While there’s no guarantee your site’s information will show up in a rich snippet, you can increase your odds by incorporating structured data markup into your site. It makes it easier for search engines to crawl, parse and display page content. What should you do? • Ensure that you’re using the appropriate type of structured data markup for your content type. • Don’t use spammy structured data markup or you could be hit with a penalty. Mobile search is only going to increase, so it makes sense to invest some time and attention into making sure your site is getting the exposure on search engine results pages it deserves.

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5 Ways to Boost Mobile Search Rankings

Sarah Mannone

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