There are all of these rumors. SEO is dead. SEO isn’t dead. What is it? We can drop the talk of SEO in a general sense. In 2024, mobile SEO is more critical than ever. For most people, they come to the table with mobile SEO that’s completely gone off the deep end. This is no small issue, as Google and other search engines continue to emphasize mobile-first indexing, making a strong mobile SEO strategy non-negotiable.
Companies or people who struggle with mobile SEO aren’t rare. There’s a lot of people who have this issue. Businesses face the same recurring problems. Here are the four biggest issues we’ve seen – and, more importantly, how to fix them.
One of the key contributors to poor mobile SEO is a slow page load time. Everyone has an attention span that continuously gets shorter, so no one would want to wait around for your website to load. If the page takes longer than three seconds to load on mobile, you’re missing out on converting visitors and turning them into customers.
Solution:
While it sounds like a smart a** response, just prioritize speed. Compress your image sizes, minify your code, and leverage better browser caching. Try using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to reduce service response times. These actions can significantly boost your load time, improve both user experience and search rankings.
Want to know what a death sentence for your mobile SEO is? A non-responsive design – good guess. If your site doesn’t adjust to different screen sizes, you’ll continue to frustrate mobile users and send a bad signal to search engines. Without fixing a non-responsive site, you’ll be losing out on rankings and revenue.
Solution:
If you work to implement a mobile-first design approach then you’ll make sure your layout is flexible and adapts to screen sizes without issue. Use responsive design frameworks and test your site on different devices to ensure you have a consistent experience for any user that may visit your site.
Google’s Core Web Vitals are now a key ranking factor, but many businesses overlook them. These metrics, such as largest contentful paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shifts, are critical in assessing the performance and user experience of your mobile design. Ignoring them means you’ll be penalized in the rankings and create poor user experience.
Solution:
Take a break from everything else that’s shiny and sit down to focus on improving your Core Web Vitals. Work on reducing the time it takes to have your page’s main content to load, minimize input delays when users interact with your page, and ensure the visual elements on your page don’t unexpectedly shift during loading. Tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help identify and address any of the issues that come to surface.
So, you’ve worked on everything up to this point. Your site is fast and it’s responsive, however, you still have poor UX and a low readability score on your site. Cluttered layouts, tiny fonts, and confusing navigation can frustrate site visitors and they’ll drop off from the site. If you see you have a high bounce rate, search engines will take notice and you’ll get dropped from rankings.
Solution:
Work on your site’s UI/UX. Make the navigation intuitive, use legible fonts, and ensure your design elements aren’t completely overwhelming. Focus on readability and mobile accessibility by using larger touchpoints and contrasting colors for better visibility. A clean design leads to happier user experience. And, we all know what that means: more money and stronger rankings.
If you’re looking to remain competitive in this digitally-dependent world, then you should focus on things such as:
Implementing these changes will boost your mobile SEO strategy, ensuring that your site not only meets the basic requirements, but exceeds the needs of your mobile audience. As Google continues to promote the entire idea of mobile-first indexing, businesses that prioritize mobile optimization will thrive while others are left behind.
Fixing these common issues will put you on the path to success in 2024 and beyond.