It’s no secret that mobile is the most popular search platform today. Customers now expect a frictionless, even touchless mobile experience, which is why Google recently shifted from a desktop to a mobile-first index. The upshot for Long Beach, CA-area business owners is that they must be agile and adapt their digital marketing approach by employing professional SEO services companies who have tried-and-true mobile optimization solutions.
Professional SEO companies with mobile solutions are actually still the exception to the rule. Data shows that conversion rates on mobile are far lower than desktop. And while there are tons of tips and tricks to help you optimize for desktop sites, these are not helpful for mobile optimization. Although the general strategy for CRO is the same across platforms – to offer the most seamless user experience as possible – implementation is not the same.
Mobile searchers face more distractions, have less time, and are often looking for a location “near me” (i.e., performing local searches) in comparison to desktop audiences. From the perspective of CRO, it can get quite complicated when you consider that a person who finds no friction when browsing your site on a desktop may find friction on mobile. Uniformity across platforms is certainly needed – but that’s only a starting point.
SEOs need to have a unique set of tests and posting methodologies for mobile, and here are five tips to set your mobile strategy in the right direction for 2019.
- Adjust to Different Keyword Queries. As alluded to above, the types of queries from mobile search often entail different searcher intent. Mobile searchers are more likely to ask location-based questions or queries with a specific date or fact-based answer. The rise of local packs and the answer box is Google’s response to mobile search, offering up bite-sized answers in the SERP so that searchers don’t have to click-through (which can be annoying on mobile). The challenge is adjusting keyword strategy to reflect this world of semantic, on-the-fly searching.
- Make All Your CTAs Tapable. Once mobile visitors are on your site, it needs to be incredibly easy for them to navigate across pages. If page layout is chunky or CTAs are not tapable, you will probably see high exit numbers on the page.
- Test Location Based Content. One of the tried and true conversion strategies in local SEO is creating pages or site content directed squarely on local search trends. What are people in your area searching for? What unique content can you put up to answer their queries better than your local competitors?
- A/B Test Everything. As with all things CRO, you can never sit on your laurels. It’s important to always test new versions of pages to see if there are better ways to display information to your mobile audience. If you are not running A/B tests, then you are not really learning from your audience. And when you are not learning about your audience, you are regressing.
- Identify Exit Pages and Explore Solutions. Part of the imperative to A/B test all the time is that you want to find ways to limit exit percentages on core pages. Why are mobile searchers leaving your product page – the very page you set up to make a sale? Is it because you have too much content for average mobile readers? Exploring solutions takes you back into the flywheel of CRO: the constant testing, measuring, learning, and optimizing process that must be unique to the mobile experience and ensures you patch leaks in your conversion funnel before they expand.
Mobile-First Everything
SEOs that are still focused on desktop testing and formatting are probably ignoring the interests of their current customer base and missing out on tons of additional traffic. While the CRO strategy is the same across platforms, testing and measuring practices must be unique to each platform, mobile included.
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