With the recent introduction of many exciting iPhone applications the niche world on mobile phone SEO is quickly grabbing attention. What’s discovered today is old news tomorrow, so keeping updated with all the online mobile phone advances is a challenge in itself. But how can you launch your website easily to become SEO friendly on mobile phone websites? Here are a few tips to get you ready for take-off:

Need a mobile URL?

The answer is no – you don’t need a mobile phone URL to launch into mobile phone SEO. You can adapt your website to be mobile phone friendly, or create a version of your website on a mobile domain (.mobi). To reduce the risk of duplicating your website’s content for online mobile use, it’s far safer to rather have a mobile adapted version of your website, where content is a specific to the online mobile phone user.

Be compatible with all platforms

Not everyone uses the same mobile phone are your mobile webpages should accommodate this. It’s wise to have a standard format for most hand-held online devices, and several versions too for the popular mobile phones. This ensures your webpages are clearly visible within the screens and resolution of a range of mobile device.

Keep it plain and simple

All content within your mobile phone webpages should be kept to a minimal and should be clearly and simply laid out. Provide relevant information at the top of the page and make navigation tools easily visible and simple to use. Place engaging nuggets of information in a user-friendly format. This will keep those viewing your pages satisfied and more likely to return.

Follow the guidelines

Google recommends following the webpage design standards within the World Wide Wed Consortium (W3C). W3C develops specifications, guidelines, software, and tools aimed to ‘lead the web to its full potential’.

Submit your sitemap to search engines

If you want your website to be indexed by Google and Yahoo! then you’ll need to submit your sitemap to them. Ensure each of your webpages has at least one incoming link.

Use valid code

Use valid code – XHTML 0.1 code – when creating your mobile phone webpages. Mobile phone search engines cannot easily assimilate code, and if yours is valid they shouldn’t have a problem indexing your website.

Follow traditional SEO

Keep the same best practice SEO rules – place major keywords in the title tags, maintain rich, engaging content, thread major keywords skilfully within content, and include incoming and external links.

Keep it ethical

Follow the ethical guidelines set out in traditional SEO methods as the same risks apply to mobile phone websites. The risk of being scratched from search engines is far greater than bending the rules.

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