What are the differences in search optimising for a mobile phone website versus a standard website? And, do search engines treat a mobile search differently to a normal PC or desktop search?

If you have a normal website but want to create a mobile phone version of the same website then creating two separate sites would mean duplicating content – which is a search engine optimisation (SEO) risk. This risk is referred to a ‘black hat’ SEO technique, and is unaccepted by search engines. Here’s simple explanation about SEO for mobile phone websites.

Tapping into the mobile online market

The mobile phone online market is growing fast, and so too SEO for this kind of marketing. To understand the distinctions between desktop and mobile searches, you’ll need to note the very different user experiences between the two. The most obvious is the screen size, and this impacts on how users search using their mobile phones, and how the information is fed back from search engines.

Mobile phone search results are often returned with pages that have reduced graphics and are more of a ‘text only’ version of the webpage.  Webpage navigation also varies greatly on mobile phones as opposed to desktops. Essentially people who use their mobile phones to search the internet require relevant information in small nuggets. What is a great user experience on a desktop webpage will most likely be a frustrating experience on a mobile phone. Information therefore needs to be tailored and adapted for mobile phone use. This is a main reason why you cannot duplicate your webpage content for mobile phone use.

Tips for mobile phone SEO

Before planning a SEO campaign for the mobile phone online market, your first action should be to get your website mobile compliant.  The general golden rule is to keep your mobile phone webpages simple and easy to navigate. It’s worthwhile to have W3C compliant XHTML code and update your mobile webpages to comply with the basic standards.

Here are general tips for adapting your website for the mobile market:

• Information positioning: Improve the user experience by ensuring information on the mobile screen is accurately placed and that relevant information is promptly at the top of the screen. This is achieved by organising your coding. With the use of XHTML and CSS you’ll be able to place website content appropriately within the mobile phone webpage.
• Font size: Make sure your font size isn’t too large or too small, and that your website navigation tools are clearly visible.
• Content: Only place relevant content on mobile phone webpages and keep it engaging and succinct. Keep content short and easy to read.
• Mobile website sitemap: Once you’ve completed your mobile phone sitemap send it to search engines for indexation
• Keep traditional SEO methods: While the online mobile phone user experience is very different to desktop the main rules are still relevant – proper page titles, engaging content and headlines, and quality links.
• .mobi website: A .mobi domain is not compulsory to enable your website to cross over to the mobile platform. A .com and other domain extensions are sufficient.

Get Involved