How Mobile SEO Differs from Desktop SEO

Featured article by Calvin Page, IT Specialist

It’s a matter of fact that many businesses today overlook the impact that mobile browsing has on them, and many are not putting any plans in place for the future when most online activity is likely to take place on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Although a few businesses are taking advantage of this today rather than waiting until they have no choice, and to them it may not seem like there’s much of a problem. However, providers of SEO tools that we all use appear to be under the impression that the market is not yet asking for tools and features to track the impact of mobile on social revenue and search. Perhaps the reason behind this is that marketers aren’t fully aware of the differences and impacts.

Why is Mobile SEO Different?

A major reason why SEO professionals need to take mobile into serious consideration is that a lot of the time, the search results that appear on mobile devices such as smartphones vary from those that will appear on a desktop browser. Last year, a study found that mobile device and desktop search results can vary from anything up to 86%.

Local Results

When a search is conducted on a mobile device such as a smartphone, local results are more likely to appear than if the same search was carried out on a browser. Listings in Google Places will often appear higher on a mobile search than they would on a desktop, and searches with local intent such as ‘Spanish restaurant in London’ are more likely to appear higher on a mobile device. This makes optimization for Google Places absolutely essential, and could even call for domains with keywords that are geo-modified.

Autocomplete

When it comes to mobile device searches, autocomplete results act as results before the actual results are shown. Mobile suggest optimizing, along with a search call to action in broadcast advertising may be a strategy that will allow users to find high-priority content related to your brand on a mobile device that may have not been found otherwise.

Videos and Images

As image and video results often appear higher in mobile device search results than they would on a desktop search, it makes sense to carry out image search optimization and video SEO through a video link building service. Although these strategies are low-priority for desktop search optimization, they are crucial if mobile is important to the goals of the business.

Personalisation

Personalised results may not be a big deal for desktop users but Android users, for example, are always logged into Google, therefore personalised results are shown a lot more often on a mobile search than on a desktop. This may call for actions that change personalised search results, such as on-site messaging for example ‘bookmark this site for easier access in Google’.

Have you optimised your website and content for better search results on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones and seen good results because of it? Why do you believe mobile SEO is important to the modern world? We’d love to hear your opinions and stories in the comments.