Mobile devices have changed the world! In less than two decades, mobile devices have become the primary way most people access the internet to find the information, goods, and services they want and need. In fact, there’s a strong chance you’re using a mobile device to read this post.

The way a user experiences a webpage on their phone or tablet can be the difference-maker between digesting more of your content and considering your business offerings or bouncing away to visit your competitor. And as interconnectivity increases between mobile devices, major search engines like Google have adapted to the new normal by prioritizing mobile-supported webpages in their index over webpages traditionally developed for desktop computers and laptops.

So, if you want your website to compete in relevant search markets, then come with us as we unpack one of the secrets to ranking high on search engines in the Web 2.0 era. In this post, we’ll reveal why your website SEO strategy should prioritize mobile users over desktop users. You’ll learn how optimizing your site for mobile devices will please your user base, save you marketing dollars, and help your site edge out your competitors in the same search space.

But first…

The History of SEO (abridged)!

From 1994 to 2000: Web 1.0! The young “internet world” realized that just because a website is published doesn’t mean people will find it. So, YAHOO.com and half a dozen additional search engines joined the scene to help users discover websites. Now, these “search engines” were simply directories that listed sites manually submitted to their list by the site’s owner. There was no algorithm. There were no web crawlers. There was no Google. And users were slowly loading webpages across dialup and viewing them on clunky, small 800 x 600 monitors. Wonderful.

In the year two thousand: In the early 2000s, a new search engine emerged that would change the world yet again. Introducing Google! At the time, Yahoo was the most popular search engine but they partnered with Google to begin powering their own search results. It was the first time that the world collectively learned what a web crawler was, and like magic users could search keywords that would generate a list of relevant websites updated in real-time for each person.

Google’s popularity began to grow exponentially because they figured out a way to qualify and sort websites based on relevancy, popularity and eventually location. Google quickly became the go-to search engine to find whatever users were looking for on the web. Meanwhile, computer technology grew in tandem with beefier modems, larger monitors, and more processing power! Also, phone companies began to integrate mobile phones and devices with a form of internet access. It was janky at the time, but a very cool feature.

This created an amazing opportunity for brands to explore revenue streams through digital marketing of their websites, and specifically through website SEO to rank high on Google. But even with all this awesomeness, the internet was still predominantly a collection of “static” text pages and images that people mostly enjoyed on large computers, so there wasn’t a need for brands and site owners to focus on a website’s mobile user experience as much…but that would quickly change.

In 2007, “Apple reinvents the phone”: The first truly recognized smartphone was introduced to the world by Steve Jobs, and with it web technology exploded as we entered Web 2.0! A year later, the first Android was released. “There’s an app for that” grew into a universal slogan, as the world became more interconnected through mobile internet access and faster speeds.

From 2007 to 2015…to today: Each year, the internet saw an increase in usage by mobile users. Google Search Results were now being tailored to each user’s unique location, and by 2015 Google launched their mobile-friendly algorithm update as mobile searches overtook desktop searches for the first time ever.

By 2016, Google told the world that it would start transitioning their search engine to prioritize sites designed for mobile devices over desktop devices. Called “mobile-first indexing” the initiative gave brands and website owners new parameters and guidelines that forced them to consider SEO for mobile, specifically by providing a positive user experience onsite.

It took 6 more years – from 2017 to 2023 – for Google to fully transition their search engine to mobile-first indexing. Today, approximately 60% of all internet traffic is now from a mobile device. And with the rapid growth of search competition, the phenomena of social media, and the further advancement of technologies like language A.I., users are now inundated with information, entertainment, and product offerings constantly through their phones. “So many notifications!”

So, brands now have a very short window to impress and communicate the benefit of their product or service through their website. If users have a poor experience when visiting your site from their mobile device, they will quickly leave your site for one of your competitors.

Search Engine Journal has a great article on the history of SEO if you’re interested in reading more.

What is SEO for Mobile? How is it different than traditional SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is a set of processes that improve a website’s visibility in search engines, like Google, to achieve higher rankings and get more organic traffic. These processes are grouped into “things to improve keyword/content relevancy”, “things to provide a positive user experience”, and “things to improve website popularity/authority”.

Search engines like Google crawl websites, grade them on hundreds of these metrics, and use the data to rank one website over another based on the related search query. Now, SEO for mobile isn’t a different form of SEO, but an additional dimension added to the overall discipline that focuses on providing a positive user experience when a user visits a site through their mobile device.

Actually, no one truly “visits” any website. In fact, each website is downloaded and stored to the device we’re using through our web browser. Each webpage file, resource file, and script file are sent from the site’s server and temporarily stored onto our computer or mobile device for use, and then when we click on a link to “visit” another webpage, the process repeats until we close our web browser…and here’s where SEO for mobile comes into play.

Mobile devices are smaller than desktops and laptops in disk space, memory capacity, processing power and screen size, and these limitations can impact a user’s ability to download and experience your website properly which have real costs. For example:

• There are financial costs associated with a user downloading and processing large web content on a mobile device.
  • Mobile phone data plans can vary depending on gigabyte usage. So, the higher a user’s data needs, the more they must pay carriers and internet providers.
  • Larger sites can drain a phone’s battery as it is forced to process large data, with each second of delay.

• Also, websites that lack responsive styling may be hard to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens. This can lead users to accidentally click onto areas of a webpage they did not want to click as the page’s layout shifts, and even force users to scroll horizontally because important areas are obscured onscreen, leading to general user frustration.
  These are just some of the reasons search engines like Google will lower the rankings of a brand’s search presence if they have not performed adequate website SEO for mobile users.

But mobile users aren’t the only ones experiencing additional costs. There also are significant costs directly associated with brands that publish websites not optimized for mobile browsers. For example:

• Higher server bandwidth costs as it takes more bytes to push larger files to users.
• Higher server storage costs for larger files.
• Loss of opportunities in the form of fewer sale/lead conversions as dissatisfied users bounce away.
• Page Speed. There was an official study performed by Amazon (back in 2006) that proved each 100 milliseconds of added page load time can cost a brand like theirs a significant percentage of revenue, as referenced here.

So, it is worth the investment for brands to design (or redesign) their website to maximize mobile user experience.

Which SEO elements should a brand focus on when performing website SEO for mobile devices? And in what order?

So, you now understand the benefits of SEO for mobile. Where do you start if your website has already been designed for desktop users? Well, based on the most common problems we’ve seen across dozens of brand websites, here’s a prioritized list of our recommendations for a few of the most important SEO elements you should address:

• Images. Hands down, optimizing your images for mobile browsers should be your priority.
  • Typically, images (whether photos or creatives) are uploaded to a website at a default size that fits most widescreen TVs! These files are already too large for desktop browsers, so they’re definitely too much for mobile browsers.
  • Most images are also still produced using formats that were the standard in the Web 1.0 era, which means they’re bulky. Moreover, mobile devices were introduced during Web 2.0 so they process outdated formats less efficiently.

• Webpage Resource files (like JavaScript and CSS). JavaScript is responsible for much of the cool stuff that a webpage can do, while CSS is responsible for the look and feel of a page.
  • Typically, web developers will take existing resource files from a standard theme and stack on top of existing rules whatever is needed to customize the client’s website.
    So, there is a TON of waste as mobile browsers are forced to download megabytes worth of additional instruction that isn’t being used by the site at all.
• HTML loading priority.
  • Desktop browsers have advanced far enough in technology that the order in which HTML elements and resources are loaded on a page does not matter much. However, because of a mobile browser’s limitations, the order matters a lot.
    Critical HTML code that paints the above-the-fold content should load first, while non-critical resources should load last.
• Content layout. Even considering how your site’s page content is structured on a mobile device can affect mobile user experience.
  • Is the text blocky? Is your font easy on the eyes? How is the contrast ratio between your text color and background? Does the content suddenly shift or is it stable? Does the text fit?

These are some of the most important SEO elements you should focus on first. Now, while optimizing each of these areas may seem like a complicated task, don’t worry! This is why digital marketing agencies like DMi exist to help you through it.

We have a team of experts with nearly two decades of experience in SEO helping both international and local brands to rank high in search engines like Google. We stay current with the evolution of SEO and have developed strategies to optimize websites as quickly and efficiently as possible to increase organic traffic for our clients. We can guide you through the process.

Currently, search is being integrated into all mobile experiences as we approach Web 3.0.

As owner of android technology, Google has integrated its search engine into all android phones. And in 2023, Google partnered with social media giant TikTok to integrate search into the popular mobile app. With over 1 billion TikTok users worldwide, this partnership will give the next generation of users – who do not use Google as much – direct exposure to brands and websites through Google’s search engine.

So, if your website is behind the 8 ball and hasn’t made the switch to mobile-first SEO just yet, it is imperative that you consider it soon. Otherwise, you will find it nearly impossible to maintain search visibility as we approach Web 3.0.

Here’s a free tool offered by Google to immediately gauge whether your website needs improved SEO for mobile based on an emulation of a common mobile device. Simply add a webpage URL to the tool for a rundown of performance, accessibility, best practices, and basic SEO elements. Google also offers documentation on how to interpret the data.

But if you would like a more in-depth audit or if you want to learn more about how DMi can help your brand or website maximize its SEO for mobile, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@dmipartners.com.