How many times have you picked up your phone today?
Do you find yourself increasingly using the device in your hand to check your social media, search on the internet, make a purchase, or to simply learn something new?
You are not alone.
- People today have 2X more interactions with brands on mobile than anywhere else—that includes TV, in-store, you name it (Google, 2017)
- 51% of customers say that they use mobile devices to discover new brands and products (BrightEdge, 2017)
- 80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies with mobile sites or apps that help them easily answer their questions. (Google, 2018)
- 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site (socPub)
As these numbers increase year over year, you can no longer ignore mobile.
Let’s clear one thing up, most of us think of mobile devices as tablets and phones. Not for Google, it puts tablets “in their own class” and says “when we speak of mobile devices, we generally do not include tablets in the definition.”
According to Google, mobile=smartphones.
Mobile First
The mobile-first index will rank search results based on the mobile-version of a website, even if the user is searching on a desktop. Google will consider your mobile version the primary version of your website.
If your site is already perfectly optimized for mobile and meets these criteria, you should be ok.
- Loads resources across all devices
- Doesn’t hide content on mobile versions of your site
- Loads quickly like mobile users expect
- Has working internal links and redirects
- Boasts a UX that’s optimized for any device that your visitors use
To check your site, Google has a mobile friendly test
To understand how search engine spiders see your mobile pages, crawl them with a mobile bot such as this one in SEMRush.
If you are considering a new website, make sure you understand how your audience uses your site, not every organization or path to conversion is the same. Your users may start on mobile but finish on desktop. You need to understand what information they are looking to find on mobile and what they want to access through their desktop.
Location, Location, Location is now Local, Local, Local
The location of your business used to be one of the most important success factors however, the use of mobile devices is transforming how people find local businesses and products.
- Nearly 1/3 of all mobile searches are related to location (Google, 2016)
- 46% of all searches on Google are seeking local information.
To help you rank locally, consider investing time into Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Local SEO is a form of an organic SEO strategy, used to target the areas a business operates within and to grow the online presence of locally. It’s a way for smaller organizations to compete in an extremely competitive online environment.
- From a May 2016 study conducted by Google, 76% of people who search on their mobile devices for something nearby visit the business within a day. Twenty-eight percent of these searches result in a purchase.
To help you Optimize your Google My Business page
To get your business on the local map results, you need a Google My Business (GMB) page. This has been a trend in digital marketing and will continue to be in 2019.
Having a GMB page doesn’t automatically guarantee your business a high rank. You also need to optimize your page for your potential visitors and clients.
Have a complete and accurate listing of your business on Google My Business. You must accurately mention your business name, complete address, business timings, the price of the products, add proper images and videos, invite customers to add reviews and provide users with all the information they might look for when searching for your business on Google.
User Experience on Mobile
We have all experienced a moment of visiting a website while using a smartphone and the page was not optimized for mobile. The page looked incoherent, the text was too small forcing you to zoom in, and forget about trying to navigate the site because you couldn’t see the menu.
- 53% of mobile website visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. For every one second delay in site load time, conversions fall by 12% (Google, 2018)
Nobody should have to pinch, scroll, or squint to read your mobile content. Just make your content easy to read on phones. Simple.
Mobile sites should have:
- Short and legible text
- Easy and logical navigation to lead your visitor
- Attention-grabbing images
- Smaller headers
- Easy accessible icons and action buttons
- Be scalable to all mobile devices
- Lots of negative space
Verify whether your pages are delivering a fantastic user experience. We recommend SEMRush Auditor and the mobile performance section for this task.
Take a mobile-first approach when designing your website. Always ask your designer to provide you with the mobile and desktop versions when you are designing and developing.
Once your site is ready for approval, don’t just sit in your boardroom to admire how great your site looks on a 50” tv, that’s not reality. Whip out your smartphone and take a hard look at the user experience.
Facts About Mobile
The facts about mobile marketing are undeniable and the landscape is changing rapidly. You can unleash the power of mobile, the choice is in your hands. Share your mobile first strategy with us.