Google has increasingly prioritized mobile search optimization over time. Mobile searches now exceed desktop searches globally. In April 2015, Google expanded their use of mobile friendliness as a ranking signal, meaning websites not optimized for mobile could see ranking drops. The update caused a 21% decrease in the share of non-mobile-friendly search results. The document provides guidance on technical approaches for websites to maximize their mobile search engine optimization, including responsive design, separate mobile URLs, and dynamic serving.

1. Google Mobile SEO
Navneet
Kaushal
CEO
PageTraffic

2.
Why
Mobile,
Why
Now?
John
Shehata
|
@JShehata

4. Google’s Mission Has evolved
Organize
the
World’s
Informa5on
“Our
goal
is
to
put
compu5ng
everywhere”
Sundar
Pincai,
Google
SVP,
July
24th,
2013

7. Mobile
Search
has
Exploded

8. Mobile
Search
has
Exploded
Take
a
Look
hFp://www.themobileplaybook.com/

9. “36%
of
mobile
web
search
results
vary
from
desktop,
with
23%
showing
pages
from
completely
different
sites”
Data
provided
by
SearchMetrics
from
their
2014
US
Google
Ranking
Factors
Study

10. Mobile
Usage
Over
Takes
Desktop
for
the
First
Time
in
History
Mobile Usage

11. “Google
Mobile
Queries
May
Surpass
PC
Search
This
Year”
MaF
CuFs
SMX
West,
March
2014
Mobile Searches

12. Mobile
Search
Now
Exceeds
Desktop
More
Google
searches
take
place
on
mobile
devices
than
on
computers
in
10
countries
including
the
US
and
Japan.
Inside
AdWords
May
2015

13. Mobile search business Case

15. SERPs inspired by Mobile-First Design

16. History
of
Google
and
Mobile
“As
more
people
use
mobile
devices
to
access
the
internet,
our
algorithms
have
to
adapt
to
these
usage
paFerns.
In
the
past,
we’ve
made
updates
to
ensure
a
site
is
configured
properly
and
viewable
on
modern
devices.
We’ve
made
it
easier
for
users
to
find
mobile-­‐friendly
web
pages.”
Google
Webmaster
Central
Blog
February
26,
2015

17. Googlebot
Mobile
Crawling
Errors
Changes
in
Mobile
Rankings
2014
2013
2012
Mobile
Results
&
Test
Tool
PageSpeed
Insights
Indexing
Android
Apps
Mobile
Usability
2011
2015
Usability
Warnings
Mobile
Search
Queries
Stats
Warnings
for
Flash
Sites
Faulty
Redirects

18. June
2013
THE
ROLLOUT
BEGINS
“To
improve
the
search
experience
for
smartphone
users
and
address
their
pain
points,
we
plan
to
roll
out
several
ranking
changes
in
the
near
future
that
address
sites
that
are
misconfigured
for
smartphone
users.”
Google
Webmaster
Central
June
11,
2013

19. November
2014
MOBILE
FRIENDLY
LABEL
ADDED
TO
SERPS

21. January
2015
WARNINGS
TO
FIX
MOBILE
USABILITY
ISSUES

22. February
2015
THE
OFFICIAL
ANNOUNCEMENT
“Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use
of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This
change will affect mobile searches in all
languages worldwide and will have a significant
impact in our search results. Consequently, users
will find it easier to get relevant, high quality
search results that are optimized for their
devices.”
Google
Webmaster
Central
Blog
February
26,
2015

23. Don’t
ignore
the
warning.
“We
wanted
to
give
you
a
date
so
that
you
know
at
least
you
have
unbl
that
bme
to
really
double
check
what’s
happening
with
your
website
and
make
sure
that
if
you
have
a
mobile
website
already
that
it
is
being
recognized.”
John
Mueller,
Google
Webmaster
Trends
Analyst
February
26,
2015

24. When
exactly?
“We
are
expecbng
it
(the
mobile
friendly
algorithm)
to
roll
out
on
April
21st,
we
don’t
have
a
set
bme
period
because
it
is
going
to
take
a
couple
of
days
to
roll
out.
Maybe
even
a
week
or
so.
From
an
official
Google
Hangout
Session
March
24,
2015

25. How
has
the
update
worked?
“We’re
going
to
try
to
boost
the
mobile
friendly
sites
in
search
and
with
that
if
we
boost
one
set
of
sites
then
of
course
the
other
set
of
sites
drops
down.”
John
Mueller,
Google
February
26,
2015

26. It’s
an
All
or
Nothing
Algorithm
“You
either
have
a
mobile
friendly
page
or
not.
It
is
based
on
the
criteria
we
menboned
earlier,
which
are
small
font
sizes,
your
tap
targets/links
to
your
buFons
are
too
close
together,
readable
content
and
your
viewpoint.
So
if
you
have
all
of
those
and
your
site
is
mobile
friendly
then
you
benefit
from
the
ranking
change.”
From
an
official
Google
Hangout
Session
March
24,
2015

27. Non-­‐Mobile-­‐Friendly
Share
of
SERPs
Decreases
21%
with
April
21
Mobile
Algorithm
Change

28. Mobile Search v Desktop Search
• Mobile search queries mimic desktop
• Searchers use the same number of keywords,
on average, per query
• 2.45 v 2.56 on mobile and 2.64 on PDA
• Mobile users perform fewer searches per
session, click through less and are more likely
to go to the 2nd search results page
• 2.0 queries per session on mobile
• 1.7 clicks per query on mobile
• 10.4% go to 2nd page
Source: Google – Deciphering Trends in Mobile Search, M. Kamvar & S. Baluja

29. Mobile Search Results
• Shorter headlines & snippets
• Only 2-3 results above the fold
• Sponsored links at the bottom
• Layout of search results varies on search
engines
• Universal search used on all except Ask.com
mobile

30. Changing Face of Mobile Search
Text Local & Image Audio Video

31.
Mobile:
Site
Technical
Guidelines
John
Shehata
|
@JShehata

39. Good Practices to Maximize your Mobile SEO
All
of
them
have
Pros,
Cons
&
SEO
Best
Pracbces

40. Select
the
Most
Suitable
for
You

41. Validate
with
the
previously
idenbfied
informabon,
your
content
needs
&
technical
capacity.
Select
the
Most
Suitable
for
You

42. Responsive
Separate
URLs
Dynamic
Serving
• ALL
devices
• 1
URL
• Same
Content/HTML
• Use
CSS
to
render
pages
• Separate
Mobile
&
Desktop
URLs
example.com/m/
m.example.com
• Different
HTML
• All
devices
• 1
URL
• different
HTML
(and
CSS)
depending
on
user
agent
(desktop
or
mobile
device)
Pros
• 1
URL
• Easier
to
maintain
• Link
Consolidabon
• No
Redirects
>
Reduce
Loading
Time
• Recommended
By
Google
(saves
resources,
pages
crawled
once)
• BeFer
Mobile
Experience
• Faster
• Dedicated
Mobile
Content
• Easier
Implementabon
• 1
URL
• Link
Consolidabon
• Capacity
for
different
mobile
content
Cons
• Slower
• All
content
is
downloaded
whether
it
is
used
or
not.
This
can
be
problemabc
for
image
intensive
websites
• Same
Mobile/Desktop
Content
• Link
Equity
Dilubon
• Higher
Cost
to
maintain
• Crawled
Mulbple
Times
with
different
user
agents
• Slower
• Higher
Cost
to
maintain
• Old
Redirect
Lists
• Complex
technical
implementabon
• Crawled
Mulbple
Times
SEO
• Check
Google
Webmaster
Tools
Crawl
Errors
for
Redirect
&
404
Errors
• Check
Page
Load
Time
for
Mobile
and
Desktop
• Allow
Search
Engines
to
crawl
all
assets
(CSS,
Images,
JS)
• Redirect
Mobile
Users
and
Bots
to
the
mobile
site
• Test
Desktop
Site
for
Redirects
&
404
Errors
• Add
Rel=Alternate
to
desktop
and
rel=Canonical
to
mobile
site
• XML
Mobile
Sitemaps
• Use
user-­‐agent
vary
header
to
help
search
bots
to
find
your
mobile
content
• Test
for
Vary:
User-­‐Agent
HTTP
Header
Source:
John
Shehata,
ExecuEve
Director
of
Search
at
ABC
News

43. Just
because
Google
strongly
recommends
using
responsive
design
doesn’t
mean
you
should
automaEcally
choose
responsive
design
for
your
site

46. Use
your
Google
Webmaster
Tools

47. Go
to
Traffic
>
Search
Analybcs
>
Device
>
Mobile

48. Verify
Queries
&
Pages
Mobile
Search
Visibility

49. Verify
Queries
&
Pages
Mobile
Search
Visibility
Compare
your
(Top
Queries
&
Top
Pages)
from
(Mobile
&
Web)
search
results.

50. Go
to
Crawl>
Crawl
Errors
>
Mobile

51. Go
to
Crawl>
Fetch
as
Google
>
Mobile

52. Verify
how
Googlebot
Mobile
Access
to
your
Pages

53. hFps://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-­‐friendly/

55. Crawl
your
site
using
GoogleBot’s
mobile
User
Agent

56. If
you
need
more
compubng
power,
consider
using
a
cloud-­‐based
crawler
such
as
DeepCrawl

57. If
you
are
using
separate
URLs
for
your
desktop
and
mobile
sites,
make
sure
you
have
the
correct
rel=“alternate”
annotabon
on
the
desktop
site.
This
will
ensure
that
the
mobile
version
of
the
site
appears
in
mobile
search
Non-­‐mobile
friendly
URL
in
mobile
search.
Desktop
homepage
is
missing
the
rel=“alternate”
tag

58. According
to
research
from
BrightEdge:
According
to
BrightEdge,
72%
of
sites
with
separate
mobile
URLs
are
misconfigured,
with
a
missing
rel=“alternate”
tag
being
the
most
common
error
Source:
BrightEdge

59. Tag Mobile Pages

60. Tag
Pages
with
Canonical
Markup
What Google says…
• Canonical markup helps make content visible to bots
and searchers
• If you have an “m.” mobile site:
• Each desktop page should contain a "rel=alternate"
link meta tag that points to the mobile URL
• Each mobile page should contain a "rel=canonical"
meta tag that points to the desktop URL
• Alternatively add notation to Sitemaps file
• Consider Javascript redirects that match on link value

61. Canonical
Link
Markup:
Just
Do
It

62. Some Best Practices
• Follow
the
"m"
convenbon
(m.novarelibrary.com
OR
lifeonterra.com/m/)
• Keep
categories
(directories)
short.
Remember
that
you
are
creabng
a
page
that
people
touch
without
much
typing
• Limit
image
and
markup
sizes
• Limit
HTML
pages
to
25KB
to
allow
for
caching
• "Minify"
your
scripts
and
CSS
(JSLint,
CleanCSS)
• Link
to
Full
Site
• Sniff
for
User
Agent
–
Detecbon
(allow
the
user
to
decide
where
to
go)
• One
Column
Layout
with
some
whitespace
• Mobile
refers
to
the
user!

63. • SEPARATE URLS?
• On the desktop page, add the link rel=”alternate” tag pointing to
the corresponding mobile URL. This helps Googlebot discover the
location of your site’s mobile pages.
• This tag specifies an alternative URL to the desktop page.
• <link
rel="alternate"
href="hFp://m.example.com/"
/>
• On the mobile page, add a rel=”canonical” tag pointing to the
corresponding desktop URL. This rel=”canonical” tag on the mobile
URL pointing to the desktop page is required as it signals the
relationship between the two URLs
Ø <link
rel=“canonical”
href=hFp://www.example.com/”
/>
*maintain a 1-to-1 ratio between the mobile page and the corresponding
desktop page

64. • Avoid
plugins
(flash,
Silverlight,
Java,
etc.)
• Configure
the
viewport
<meta
name=viewport
content="width=device-­‐width,
inibal-­‐scale=1">
• Size
content
to
viewport
• Use
legible
font
sizes
• Size
tap
targets
appropriately
Optimize User Experience

65. • Mulb-­‐Device
Design:
hFps://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/layouts/
• 25
Principles
of
Mobile
Site
Design
hFps://www.google.com/think/mulbscreen/whitepaper-­‐sitedesign.html
• Forms
hFps://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/input/form/
• Mobile
e-­‐commerce
Design
hFp://www.kaushik.net/avinash/web-­‐design-­‐user-­‐experience-­‐best-­‐pracbces/
READ:

66. Avoid
these
mobile
design
mistakes
Once
you've
chosen
the
soluEon
that
best
suits
your
goals
and
budget,
here
are
some
common
mobile
opEmizaEon
mistakes
to
avoid.
1. Do not block JavaScript, CSS or image files
2. Avoid putting up unplayable content
3. Set up your redirects properly
4. Watch out for mobile-only 404s
5. Don't push users to download your app aggressively
6. Check for irrelevant cross-links
7. Make sure your page isn't too slow

67. Download
checklist
from
hFp://pt.gy/mobileseocheck

68. Website: www.pagetraffic.com
Email: navneet@pagetraffic.com
Twitter: @navneetkaushal
Blog: www.pagetrafficbuzz.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pagetraffic.in
THANK YOU!
Download
checklist
from
hFp://pt.gy/mobileseocheck