In short, mobile SEO (search engine optimisation) means optimising your website for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. It is vital for Google to first understand the set up of your website, in order to take the other aspects into account when determining your ranking. With the surge in mobile users across the globe, you want your business to be seen and found by users who would potentially convert when they are on their mobile devices – This is where mobile SEO comes into play.

Today, search engines are prioritising mobile-friendly websites more than ever. Google uses ‘Mobile-first Indexing’ as part of its algorithm for ranking. An increasing number of businesses are modifying their strategies in order to stand out from the clutter. Hence, having a well-optimised website alone no longer suffices. Even with a brilliant website that is well-optimised for desktop, without a mobile SEO strategy in place, your rankings will suffer an adverse impact.

Traditionally, Google would index sites differently based on whether they were being searched on a desktop or mobile. However now Google’s ‘Mobile-first Indexing’ ranks search results based solely on the mobile (smartphone) version of your website. Yup, that even applies if you’re searching from a desktop or tablet! And with Google controlling over 90% of search engine market share globally, this is a big deal. Mobile SEO ensures that your website is constantly showing up at the top of search engine results pages, allowing users to organically discover and access your products and services regardless of what medium they’re using.

For most of us, we might assume that a ‘mobile’ device is anything that isn’t a desktop computer. However, by Google’s own definition, a ‘mobile’ device refers solely to smartphones. Yup, tablets like your iPad or Surface aren’t included in the category. However, this doesn’t make mobile SEO any less important. With the rise of eCommerce platforms and eCommerce functions on popular social media sites, many people in Singapore can rely solely on their smartphone to browse, shop, buy, and book products and services they’ve been looking for.

There are many other aspects to consider when optimising for mobile SEO, including identifying the right target keywords in your copywriting and initiating a content marketing strategy. However, technical implementations are what enable your site to be indexed properly by search engines as well as received in a timely manner by users. As a full-suite digital marketing agency, First Page offers a whole host of other digital marketing services in Singapore to help you tackle every aspect of mobile SEO without any worries.

One of the significant differences is that your users’ behaviour changes substantially based on the devices they are using. When users search on mobile, it brings about a whole different experience for them as compared to when they are performing a desktop search. With wider search options on mobile such as voice search on the rise, their search query can greatly differ, and businesses need to take this into account.

Email marketing platforms such as Hubspot may work on mobile devices, but they differ in their approach to lead generation compared to mobile SEO. Email marketing sends information on your products and services right into your audience’s email inboxes, whereas mobile SEO boosts the likelihood of organic traffic to your website. Both can help you create new leads and attract new customers, but the profiles of each set of customers is likely to differ and require a different approach accordingly.

Mobile SEO isn’t just about optimising the technical aspects of your site – it’s also about giving search engines and users reasons to access your site in the first place. Content marketing strategies such as blogs and optimising your SEO copywriting are great approaches for long-term longevity and maintaining your website’s domain authority. Many people now turn to their smartphones when searching for topics, products, or services that interest them – meaning any content you wish to include on your site should also be optimised to reach these mobile users.

There are 3 key things to consider when optimising your site for mobile users:

• Responsive web design
• Dynamic serving
• Separate URLs for desktop and mobile versions of the website

Responsive web design means your website has the same content and HTML code for the same URL on any device users may use to access it. This means it displays the same content in the exact same way regardless of whether they’re browsing on an iPad or scrolling through their Samsung. With smartphones and digital devices now coming in a variety of dimensions and sizes, responsive design is crucial to drawing in as big an audience as possible.

Dynamic serving configurations ensure the server provides different HTML and CSS code on the same URL based on the user’s device. This means you would see a ‘desktop version’ when browsing on your computer, and a ‘mobile version’ when browsing on your smartphone. This can build your brand’s professionalism, especially if the design accounts for different user browsing behaviour across devices.

With both responsive web design and dynamic serving to consider, businesses no longer need to maintain separate URLs for different versions of their website. However, this is still a basic way to ensure your content displays in a consistent manner across different mobile devices.

Feeling overwhelmed by technical jargon? Our technical SEO specialists in Singapore are here to help! We know how to optimise your website from the ground up, so you don’t have to worry about pertinent information getting lost during the migration period.

It’s completely free to start building up your mobile SEO health and boosting your website’s ranks on search engines. However as there are technical aspects of mobile SEO to consider, it may be useful to engage a digital marketing partner to advise and guide you on an appropriate strategy. At First Page, we employ ethical best practices in our digital marketing services to ensure that your website continues to build domain authority even after your contract with us ends. With our expert SEO specialists guiding you behind the wheel, you don’t have to worry about reaching new audiences.

Businesses today who do not optimise their site for mobile-first SEO stand to lose out in two ways: either their site is not going to be ranked as high on Google as it could be due to Mobile-first Indexing, or their other competitors who have prioritised mobile-first SEO will gain a competitive advantage in an increasingly digital market.

As the leading digital marketing agency in Singapore, First Page is always on the lookout for the latest mobile trends and behavioural patterns to fine-tune our mobile SEO recommendations. Our Digital Marketing Specialists take into consideration the changing smartphone and social media landscape in order to tailor a mobile SEO strategy that can help your business build its long-term brand image and carve out your own niche of the market.

Taking advantage of Mobile-first Indexing isn’t the only way mobile SEO can help you reach your business goals. Social media networks (many of which are accessed through smartphones) have become a key avenue for connecting with potential customers and generating sales leads.

With the explosion in e-commerce platforms and e-commerce features being added to social media networks such as Instagram or Facebook, there is a high chance today that a majority of your users will first encounter your company or business through a mobile device. Even for brick and mortar businesses, the growth of eCommerce has pushed many in Singapore to go fully digital! Making your website mobile-friendly isn’t just a strategic add-on for companies anymore – it’s becoming much more of a necessity to even compete in the digital market.

Yes, mobile SEO for eCommerce can ensure that mobile users, too, have an optimised experience while shopping on your online store. We offer various SEO services for Commerce platforms such as Shopify SEO, WooCommerce SEO, and Magento SEO that already take into consideration the overwhelmingly mobile profile of e-commerce shoppers in Singapore and worldwide. Depending on the e-commerce platform your business uses, our Digital Marketing Specialists will be able to recommend mobile SEO best practices to kickstart your eCommerce sales.

While optimising your website for mobile SEO will go a long way to helping you attract new leads and audiences, it’s not advisable to limit your digital marketing only to mobile SEO. A comprehensive search engine marketing (SEM) strategy is also one that is flexible, responsive, and able to reach out to all kinds of audiences to continuously help you generate new leads. Our SEO specialists can help you craft a suitable SEO campaign to meet your business needs.

As the migration to a mobile site can be a complex process, it is important to pick an agency that has the right expertise and experience to assist you with a seamless transition, with little to no impact on your existing ranking. It is also critical for your selected agency to have an in-depth understanding of the search engine’s algorithm, so that they have what it takes to transform your efforts into tangible results. We recommend you to have a comprehensive look into the agency’s portfolio.

The crux of good mobile-friendly website design can be simply explained as: giving visitors to your website an easy, convenient, and accessible browsing experience. Both technical and non-technical implementations can go a long way to improving your mobile SEO and helping you attract the long-term trust and loyalty of mobile customers. Just reach out to our friendly SEO specialists in Singapore to get started on your mobile SEO journey!