As technology continues to grow, search engine optimization (SEO) is becoming increasingly vital to the overall success of a small business. Proper optimization of a website is now one of the most effective opportunities to grow businesses for online recognition and reputation. However, the world of search engine optimization is can be overwhelming to keep track of. Tactics like keyword discovery and link building are a few of the key terms that come to mind, but there is one tactic that is growing increasingly importance – mobile optimization.
As mobile devices, such as cell phones and tablets, continue to grow in popularity, implementing proper mobile optimization into a small business’s website can be the deciding factor in whether or not the website ranks in a search engine’s results page. In fact, Google recently recognized this popularity by releasing 2015’s “Mobilegeddon” algorithm update, which boosts the rankings of websites who are practicing mobile optimization. Therefore, it is important to include this within your SEO endeavors.
Here are two key mobile optimization tactics to implement into your digital business planning. Hopefully, it can jumpstart you get the most out of your small business’s SEO campaigns.
Responsive Design
If you have been involved with SEO for any length of time, you may have heard the term responsive design, but what does it mean? Responsive design is a website will detect a user’s screen size and reproportion the website to fit properly within screen’s resolution. This allows a user to view a website’s content without being inconvenienced by navigating the desktop version of the website on a device like a smartphone.
Thankfully many website hosting options, like WordPress have implemented responsive design within the various themes and options they provide to their customers. Meaning it is just a matter of testing your website with tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure that responsive design is being utilized property throughout the website.
Page Load Speed
As search engines are becoming more user-focused, the time it takes for your website’s pages to load can play a large role in your website’s credibility in both Google and your visitor’s eyes. The time it takes for your website to display after being clicked can and will directly affect whether or not a user will want to visit your website.
There are various studies available on how page load speed affects SEO, but this one from Moz goes into a lot of detail on the matter and offers a great guide to improving a website’s overall performance when it comes to page load speed.