Mobile SEO is fast gaining prominence in the internet marketing industry, as webmasters fall over each other to target the users of cell phones, smart phones and PDAs. Also known as third screens, the market share of these hand-held devices is rapidly increasing due to their portability, compactness, affordability and most importantly, due to the fact that they require very little technical knowledge to operate.
These hand-held devices offer users the flexibility to be in touch with their social circle as well as access information anytime and anywhere, which is why more and more users are switching to mobile internet. Internet marketers, who want to reach out to this ever-growing market, must invariably pay more attention to mobile SEO strategies. Optimizing a website for mobile internet users is a brand new strategy and experience for Search Engine Optimization professionals, which are discussed in brief in the following paragraphs.
1) Screen Size and layout
Considering the fact that the mobile screen has a limited space, the first thing that you should pay attention to is the correct screen size. Minimum use of the keypad, lightweight design, and more usage of vertical scroll rather than horizontal scroll will make your website easier to browse on a mobile screen. A table or a frame will make your screen bigger; hence it is better to avoid them. Mobile web developers generally develop their mobile website in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which adjusts the screen size automatically. Ensure that your titles, urls, meta tags are short and simple so that they can easily fit on the small mobile screen.
2) Optimization for mobile search:
Mobile search engines like Bing Mobile, Google Mobile, Taptu, Jumptap, etc operate differently from traditional search engines in many respects. This is mainly because of the fact that mobile phone users differ from laptop or desktop users in their temperament, site requirement, accessing location, and the time in hand. While desktop and laptop interfaces are quite standardized, the mobile phone interface is still quite varied, with the result that the same mobile search engine may return different search results on different handsets.
3) Best practices for mobile SEO:
While designing your web page for the mobile screen, go through the W3C guidelines and utilize the XHTML code on your website. In mobile SEO, keywords are targeted in a way which is different than traditional SEO. Shorter keywords of 2-3 phrases with the geographical location included are the best for mobile SEO. Also, it would be prudent on your part to submit your mobile website to various mobile search engines and also to Dmoz directory to receive quality in-bound links.
As mobile search is rapidly growing day by day, Search Engine Optimization professionals must realize the basic differences in mobile and laptop users, the differences in mobile and traditional search engines, and optimize their mobile website accordingly to make it easily accessible on mobile phones.
