TL;DR: Many of your customers search on their phones, and Google uses the mobile version of your site when it indexes and ranks your pages. A complete, consistent mobile site and active, accurate social profiles help customers find and trust your business.
Many of your customers will meet your business on a phone before they ever see your website on a desktop. That makes your mobile experience one of the most important parts of your SEO.
SEO is one of the most reliable ways to bring in new customers, but how do you put it to use? How can you attract new clients and grow your company?
When the internet was young, SEO was easier. Now, everything has changed. SEO is more than stuffing websites with common keywords. It is continually evolving to keep up with the way that consumers use technology. myheartcreative stays on top of these changing practices. One of the easiest ways that you can maximize your online presence is to focus on your mobile site. A site that is hard to use on a phone makes it harder for customers to take the next step. Here is how mobile design and social media work together to support your search visibility.
Mobile Friendly Websites
Nowadays, people rely on their mobile devices for everything, from taking pictures and engaging in social media to looking up information and making purchases. Google has responded with mobile-first indexing, which means it uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking. The rollout began in 2018, and it has since become the standard. When your mobile website contains less information than the desktop version, search engines may miss important details when crawling and indexing your content.
Going forward, make sure that your mobile site design matches your desktop content and follow Google’s mobile-first indexing best practices. A responsive layout adjusts automatically to each screen size, which is the simplest way to keep both versions consistent.
One clarification: Google has said mobile-first indexing is about how it gathers content, not how it ranks it, so there is no ranking boost simply for being indexed this way. What matters is a mobile experience that is complete, fast, and easy to use.
If you are uncertain about your mobile site, consider contacting myheartcreative to assess your performance via an SEO website audit.
Social Savvy Marketing
How often do you check social media on your phone? Many of your customers do the same, and that is where social media and search begin to overlap. Social media isn’t a substitute for SEO, but the two support each other. Active, complete profiles help people find, recognize, and trust your business, and they can appear when someone searches for your business by name.
To get the most from them, keep your business name, logo, hours, and website link consistent across every platform, post regularly, and make sure each profile links back to your site. Platforms keep adding new tools for businesses to reach customers directly, so it’s worth reviewing your profiles a few times a year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is mobile-first indexing?
It means Google primarily uses the mobile version of a page’s content for indexing and ranking, since most searching now happens on phones.
Will my rankings change if my mobile site is weaker than my desktop site?
They can. If the mobile version has less content or is harder to use, Google may not see everything on your desktop version. Keeping the two consistent avoids this.
Do social media posts affect my search rankings?
Social activity isn’t a substitute for SEO. Its main value is helping people find and trust your brand, and your profiles can appear when someone searches your business by name.
How can I tell if my website works well on mobile?
Browse it on your own phone and look for text that’s hard to read, buttons that are hard to tap, or pages that load slowly. An SEO audit can give you a fuller picture.
Key Takeaways
- Google uses the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking.
- Keep your mobile and desktop content consistent, ideally with a responsive layout.
- Mobile-first indexing is about how content is gathered, not a ranking bonus.
- Active, consistent social profiles help people find and trust your business.
Strengthen Your Mobile and Social Presence
Keeping up with SEO can be difficult to juggle while running a company. To get the best out of your website and social media accounts, myheartcreative can help. Our talented and experienced team will take the time to understand your needs and treat your business with the same care that we give to ours. If you want to leverage SEO to grow, contact us to start the conversation.
May 2018
Google has started rolling out mobile first index.
This started on a limited number of sites, but is now on a much larger basis.
