mobile search ranking factors
DESCRIPTION
Presentation I gave in Seattle at SMX Advanced Local University Advanced workshop on 6/7/2012 on mobile search ranking factors.TRANSCRIPT
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MOBILE SEARCH RANKING FACTORS
Data-driven Mobile SEO for 2012
Bryson MeunierDirector, Content SolutionsResolution Media@brysonmeunier+Bryson Meunier
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• Differences in smartphone ranking
• Differences in mobile search engagement: “A drop from first to fourth position on mobile phone can mean a CTR drop off of more than 90%.” Google, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth
• Mobile Search Traffic to eclipse desktop search traffic in years, not decades
MOBILE SEARCH OPTIMIZATION CRITICAL
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MANY PATHS TO MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
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One URL
Mobile URL
Mobile Site?
Site that works well
on all devices?
Smartphone optimized?
Feature phone
optimized?
Tablet optimized?
Same Content and Keywords?
Mobile Content and Keywords?
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APPARENT DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN GOOGLE
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Matt Cutts recommends mobile URLs and says mobile sites don’t cause canonicalization issues in Februray 2011
Google Webmaster Team selects responsive design for “maintainability” in May 2012 blog post
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• “Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and using only CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device.”
• “If responsive design is not the best option to serve your users, Google supports serving your content using different HTML. The different HTML can be on the same URL (a setup called dynamic serving) or on different URLs, and Googlebot can handle both setups appropriately if you follow our setup recommendations.”
GOOGLE GIVES OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATION!
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Full details at https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/
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Mobile Search Queries
Smartphone Search Results
Mobile Search
Strategies of Top Sites
DATA TO THE RESCUE
7Download the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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“Use 100% valid XHTML 1.0 code. […] Many optimizers on the traditional WWW do not consider using valid code as a best practice. Mobile search engines however may have more trouble digesting invalid code.”-Andy Hagans, (circa 2005) MobileSearchMarketing.com (#4 in Google for “mobile SEO”)
TRUE OR FALSE?: VALIDATION IS KEY
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FALSEDownload the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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“MOBILE SEO RULE NUMBER ONE: if you're trying to attract a mobile audience, then you'd better be good at it and you'd better give them an elegant user experience!-DotMobi (circa 2008), Mobithinking.com (#1 in Google for “mobile SEO”)
“Getting from needs to actions lightning fast is especially important on smaller devices like mobile phones, where screen size is limited and context really matters.”Larry Page, Google CEO in 2012 Letter to Investors
TRUE OR FALSE?: MOBILE USABILITY/PAGE SPEED IS HELPFUL
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FALSEDownload the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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“But right now, partly because of the relative lack of competition and partly because as I explained above, the link graph makes less sense for mobile sites and users, links are not needed for (at least some) mobile rankings.-Will Critchlow (circa 2008), SEOMoz.org
TRUE OR FALSE?: LINKBUILDING IS UNNECESSARY
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FALSEDownload the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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“The best way to build your mobile web site for SEO is by using the dotMobi domain”-DotMobi (circa 2008), Mobithinking.com (#1 in Google for “mobile SEO”)
TRUE OR FALSE?: DOTMOBI HELPS
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FALSEDownload the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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“The best Mobile SEO strategy is to not have a mobile SEO strategy.”-Ryan Jones (circa 2011), SearchEngineJournal.com (#3 in Google for “mobile SEO”)
“Having a mobile site is strongly correlated with top three rankings in Google smartphone search”-Bryson Meunier (circa 2012), SearchEngineLand.com
TRUE OR FALSE?: MOBILE SITES HELP RANKING
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TRUEDownload the white paper at resolutionmedia.com/white-papers/rank-higher-in-google-mobile-search
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30 MOBILE SEARCH RANKING FACTORS
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• Presence of content that matches mobile searcher's query
1 – VERY IMPORTANT
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Fina
nce • 77% of total
search volume for [atm] and 99% of volume from [atm locations] comes from mobile devices D
inin
g an
d N
ight
life • 88% of
searches for [restaurants], 97% of searches for [bars] and 80% of searches for [restaurants near me] come from mobile devices
Inte
rnet
& T
elec
om
• 69% of [apps for android] and 73% of [download ringtones] searches come from mobile devices
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• Proximity of business location to searcher device location• Presence of Google+ Local listing
1 – VERY IMPORTANT
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• 10 Web listings on desktop for [restaurants]
• 3 Web listings from Restaurant icon on mobile browser homepage
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• Listing properly redirected to or reformatted for Googlebot mobile or smartphone Googlebot
1 – VERY IMPORTANT
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• Mobile site blocked by robots.txt (negative)
2 – IMPORTANT
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• Presence of mobile site (responsive or dedicated)
• Presence of mobile site in feature phone index
2 – IMPORTANT
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• Mobile sitemap exists (primarily important for feature phone users)
3 – MODERATELY IMPORTANT
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• Logo indexed and appearing first for Google image search
• Product label indexed and appearing first for Google image search product query
4 – OF LIMITED IMPORTANCE FOR MOBILE SEARCH
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• Presence of mobile app(s) in Google Play
• Presence of mobile app(s) in iTunes
• Use of keyword in app name
4 – OF LIMITED IMPORTANCE FOR MOBILE SEARCH
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9Incognito laptop results for [chat app]
Signed out iPhone 4 results for [chat app]
A
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• Use of "mobile" somewhere in title tag
4 – OF LIMITED IMPORTANCE FOR MOBILE SEARCH
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• Aggregate data from Google reader indicating which content is viewed most often from mobile devices
• Presence of keyword rich content in carrier store
• Use of "mobile" somewhere on page
• Use of m. subdomain for listed site
• Use of same domain for desktop and mobile sites
• Use of Metatxt standard
5 – UNPROVEN RANKING FACTORS
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• Accessibility of site to multiple devices
• Percent of navigational search volume with word "mobile" following
• Percentage of navigational searches from mobile devices relative to whole
• Presence of link to desktop site in footer
• Use of mobile TLD (dotMobi)• Valid code
6 – HELPFUL FOR MOBILE MARKETING, NOT MOBILE SEARCH
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• Links from mobile social networks
• Mobile Link Popularity: Quantity of quality links from mobile sites
• Percentage of links that are from mobile sites
• Visits from QR code scans
7 – EMERGING TRENDS BUT NOT CURRENTLY A FACTOR
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1. Understand the differences between what your mobile user expects and what your desktop user expects and build your mobile site accordingly
2. Build a mobile home page at m.domain.com that addresses the mobile user’s goals with link to full site and responsive duplicate pages OR build a mobile first responsive design driven site if goals are same.
3. Do not block your mobile URLs with robots.txt. Use canonical tags for duplicate URLs and redirect smartphone URLs to smartphone Googlebot but make mobile homepage unique to appear for mobile navigational searches (i.e. [brand + “mobile site”])
4. Market your mobile site externally in print and broadcast advertising and online. Links, authority and social shares still matter in mobile.
5. Don’t believe everything you read. Many consultants are applying traditional SEO best practices to mobile, which doesn’t always translate. Trust but verify.
DATA-DRIVEN MOBILE SEO BEST PRACTICES
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For 25 more visit brysonmeunier.com/mobile-seo-best-practices
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Bryson MeunierDirector, Content SolutionsResolution [email protected]://www.brysonmeunier.comhttp://www.resolutionmedia.com@brysonmeunier
THANK YOU!
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