Mobile SEO 



The Google Mobile Update Explained
www.brandsondigital.com

 

Google is Doing What?

      On April the 21st Google Will release a search engine algorithm
update changing the way websites are ranked in Mobile Search Engine Results. 

Why is this important?

This will change the ranking of your website in mobile device search results.

Effecting how much web traffic your website receives.

This is also a great opportunity to get ahead of the competition. 


Unsure how this will effect you? Please read on...




    Mobile Usage Is Big   

More people are using mobile devices including tablets, to view websites 

and make purchasing decisions.   


Globally: Mobile is 30% of all internet activity


    US: Mobile is 30% of all internet activity


    India: Mobile usage is ~ 70%

Big Changes Ahead


       Google said this is going to be a bigger Impact than Panda and              Penguin on Mobile Search Results.

 

Global Roll Out


 It’s going out globally, not regionally

 

Duration of Roll Out 

is 1 Week 


    The update will roll out over 1 week

A quick change ahead – Best to prepare quickly 

All Hands on Deck











Best get your teams readied 

What to look for?


      Use Google Webmaster Tools to identify & fix key issues


     Check Page Loads Times.  Can they be improved?


     Check Navigation, Buttons & Layouts on Mobile. User friendly?


     Check Mobile Responsive Behaviour on Key Pages. 

Attributes of Top Ranking 

Mobile Sites

    Pages loads faster  (use Google Page Speed tester)
    None  or fewer redirects
    Smaller File Sizes  (Page speed)
    They Do Not use flash 
    Less H2 Tags, although not a proven metric to effect position. 
    Fewer keywords in body -> shorter text & simpler language used
    Fewer word count for the whole page
    Fewer Images
 
                                                                                                    (Click down to see more page speed detail)   

Average Page Load Times for

URL’s Ranking in Mobile SERPs vs. Desktop SERPs.


         Page Speed (on the left) measured in milliseconds on the left,  is a major differentiator for the top 10           search engine result positions (right axis) Mobile requires a faster speed to rank higher compared to             desktop.  The first 7 results in the results page for mobile devices are under 1 Second load time. 

        The difference we are measuring is within milliseconds. Optimising images is often the first change. 


   
 

What to do?


     Start crawling your site for mobile issues


     Using Google Webmaster Tools & other SEO Tools


     Or request Brands on Digital to do so for you.

Identify Critical Pages 


          Identify Pages with an SEO risk


          Understand which of your pages are exposed 




                                                 

                                                                                                                                        (click down to see more actions) 

Record & Set Measures

Start to Measure your Website Visibility 

in Mobile Search Engine Results pages!


      Also agree on the top level metrics for the best overview. (e.g search metrics Mobile SEO Visibility)


(click down to see more actions)


Prioritise The Workload


         Issues with your money maker pages first

        

         Page load times


         Issues Google tells you about in their tools


         Content pages with high value


         Pages with Goal Metrics or Conversion measures  


(click down to see more actions) 

Quantify the risk

      Can you work out the following statement? If so, you have the business case right there. Working this         out is easier if you have set-up your analytics correctly already.   


         “We have X-$£€ at risk, the projected forecast needs

to be adjusted, unless…..”

     Review your forecasts for conversions from mobile traffic, to factor in a potential change. 

     Best to do this before management question the  change in mobile conversions. 

     If you have done nothing to make your site to be mobile optimised – get ready to have a negative                  impact on your conversion metrics. E.g. Number of  purchases, downloads, sign-up’s etc…. 

     Use this % change in your analytics for the business case of mobile website improvements.

                                                                                                                              (click down to see more actions) 

Identify the Opportunity!


Identify and communicate the opportunity within your

organisation J


If your competitors are not optimised for mobile search engine results, then this is another way gain market share

 & share of voice in a noisy online marketing environment

This really is an Opportunity!


        Out of the top 100 German sites with the  greatest mobile                     visibility. 20% are not yet mobile friendly

      So, by optimising your website you have a chance to get your               website ahead of some major competitors. Who may well be too       slow to react. 

Measure the Competition

 Use the historic data on SearchMetrics

(Click Down to See what happened 1 week later)  

A Drop in Mobile Visibility

Looks like this - compared to previous slide, showing
the historic data up to the previous week (-12% difference)

Create a Reporting Plan


Create a Mobile Search Reporting Plan that is Robust

Create a process to report quickly on pre-agreed metrics






(Click down to see more recommendations)    

Measure Optimised Pages


         Mobile Optimised Pages Vs. Non Optimised


       Separate the pages that have been changed to be more mobile          friendly in your analytics. To measure your efforts.







                                                                                                      (Click down to see more recommendations)                                                                                               



Measure Different Page Speeds

       

         Slow pages Vs. fast pages


      This is not template-level data, it’s URL level data Varies based on size of           images, number of server calls, etc.. Particularly seems different for 

      e-commerce sites.






                                                                                                          (Click down to see more recommendations)                                                                                               

Measure Keywords Trends


       Keyword ranking by URL


     Which URL’s are ranking is the most vital! Start measuring the trend of this      now. Often a couple of URLs are swapped out.  You need to compare the          past 6 months trend with post April 21st Data. 





    (Click down to see more recommendations)   

Top Ranking keywords Vs. Low


      Know which keywords rank well vs. low

      For fast reference and comparison.


    Compare Brand Terms Vs Non Brand terms 

    Compare any other keyword groups which you are already tracking.





                                                                                                    (Click down to see more recommendations)  

Create a Quick Reporting Plan


     Create a plan to QUICKLY report a summary on:


     1 - Report on the pages mobile optimized Vs. not


     2 - Flag winners vs. losers 


     3- Analyze the winners vs. lower segments for attribute                              differences. To improve lower performing segments. 

 

Plan Ahead


     Be smart about your calendar

        Plan your resources ahead of the Mobile update (April the 21st  2015)

      If not, at least set up the measurements to show management

      the pain points that arise after the update. 

       

        Plan ahead to factor in project time to asses the changes required in:

      Measurements, Analytics & Reporting 

     On-page development changes. 

Plan Resources

   Be smart about web development


    Development / developers must be ready to react

    Have a meeting already booked with project managers, tech leads, etc

    Know if you will pull people off projects and who that will be

    Have any testing server time ready, schedule in advance

Track Changes

     

   Brands on Digital can track for you, the mobile visibility

 of your own website, competitors and the Winners vs. Losers

in your industry




  


Monitor and Make Improvements

      

   Use the resulting reports to make decisions about the URLs and          relating keywords .


      Given the changes in Mobile Search, It is now necessary to create a mobile strategy master-plan.

      Brands on Digital www.brandsondigital.com can help you strategically map these changes and

      implement them.  

                                                                                                                                      John Kennedy,  Founding Director


 Credit also goes to Searchmetrics for their shared data and knowledge of the upcoming mobile search engine changes.  

Brands on Digital uses Searchmetrics in the management of SEO, for reporting and analytics. www.searchmetrics.com