Guide to: Optimize Your Website for Mobile Search

Almost everyone has a smartphone or a windows phone these days. Many people are now using their phones to access the web daily. In order to keep up with the times, it would be good to take steps to optimize your website for mobile search. By doing this, you will be tapping into a growing segment of a new market out there. It will only help to promote your business even more if you make your website more mobile friendly.

So how do you go about optimizing your website for mobile search? Don’t be daunted by the fact that you will have to make changes. Simply keep the tips given below in mind and you will soon make your website easily accessible on a mobile.

• Preview your site on mobile devices: This is the most important thing you should do and definitely the first! You must check to see how your website looks on a mobile device. It may not be possible to check your website on every mobile device that is out there but do try to check it on a couple at least. You can then see what changes need to be made.

• Support several (or as many) mobile devices as possible: It is also essential that your website can be viewed on various different types of mobile devices. Cross device compatibility is important. There is no point in having a high ranking in mobile search if your website cannot be accessed easily across various devices. A user who finds this problem with your site will simply go to another one. It will also make you appear less professional and this is not good at all.

• Use shorter keyword and key phrases: Mobile searchers are usually brief in their queries/searches. This is because they find typing on QWERTY keyboards on their phones tiresome and problematic. Most times, they only put in keywords. Users may also limit their searches to 1 or 2 keywords only. Therefore ensure that you stick to short keywords and keywords phrases.

• Use current data:  Keep in mind that current data is what is looked for in mobile search. So you will need to make sure that your site covers the latest news in sports, the weather, market information, financial information and so on. If your site caters to any one of these niches, keep it updated regularly. You really need to optimize it for mobile search because you will be losing visitors if you do not do so.

• Keep pages short:  Mobile searchers hate scrolling through long pages. Further, mobile screens are usually small and reading long pages of text can be off-putting or almost next to impossible. It is important that you keep your pages short. Ensure that mobile users do not need to scroll down more than 5- 10 times, max. Try and put the main keywords on the first page itself.

• Avoid animation and heavy graphics: Remember that the pages of your website must load fast. Using too many graphics and animation will slow down the amount of time your page takes to load. Try and use lean graphics and cut down on the animation on your site.

• Promote your site in mobile searches: Promote your site to directories, mobile search engines, and mobile portals. List your sites with various portals. Very often mobile users go to portals. If your website is listed with that particular portal, the user will come to you. Many mobile users now use portals instead of search engines.

• Target your website locally: Very often, mobile users look for local information. Try to target your website locally, if possible. This works great if you have your own restaurant or shop.

Follow the above steps and then sit back and enjoy the results! Good luck!