How to Build a Mobile-Friendly Site: Best Practices + Examples

Mobile SEO helps businesses drive traffic to their websites from users on smartphones and tablets (a growing number of users you don’t want to ignore). Learn how our experts help brands appear in mobile search + view real-world examples and tools to get a head start. 

Mobile users account for over 57% of global online traffic, contributing to the rise of m-commerce (AKA mobile e-commerce), which is expected to reach $558 billion in 2024.

A mobile-friendly site used to be a convenience. Now, it’s a necessity to stay relevant and compete in your industry.

To improve mobile-friendliness, you’ll need the best optimization strategies and techniques.

In this SEO guide, we’ll share mobile SEO tips, how it’s different from desktop, and examples of mobile optimized websites.

What is mobile SEO?

Mobile SEO is the process of optimizing your website to ensure it provides a top-notch user experience on mobile devices. It ensures your site looks great and functions smoothly on a smartphone or tablet. The goal is to provide fast loading times, easy navigation, and readability. Achieving this increases the odds of your website ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Although SEO is a lengthy process, it can drive visibility and traffic for many years. The value of SEO is profitable when you properly optimize your business website for search and mobile.

“Mobile SEO is a core competency at HawkSEM. We take a performance-driven and ROI approach to Mobile SEO,” shares Rambod Yadegar, President of HawkSEM. “It’s crucial to ensure your site is optimized for mobile as Google’s algorithm is mobile-first and more people are using mobile devices when searching for products/services. If you’re not optimized for mobile, your results, performance, and ROI will be adversely affected.”

What is Google’s mobile-first index?

Google’s Mobile-First Index crawls the website from the perspective of a mobile device and uses that information to rank and index in search engines.

Mobile-first indexing is an approach that prioritizes mobile-friendly websites over desktop websites. Whether you have a mobile-friendly site or not ultimately dictates how Google ranks you in search engines.

Mobile and desktop sites should still have the same content, branding, and navigation. The difference: mobile sites must meet the mobile user experience requirements of Google to rank. Plus, Google will still rank your desktop website regardless.

To understand how Google currently ranks your mobile site, use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing tool.

How much does mobile SEO cost?

The cost of mobile SEO depends on whether you opt for ongoing or one-off services. For example, you can expect to spend between $3,000 and $10,000 for monthly mobile SEO services. Then for one-off projects, you may pay between $5,000 and $30,000, depending on the scope. If you’re looking for local SEO services, then the cost will be between $500 and $1,000 per month.

How to perform a mobile SEO audit (+ tools)

Mobile SEO audits identify problems or shortcomings with the current version of your website, including mobile-friendliness. You can use the results to plan your site’s optimization.

Areas you may want to focus on include:

• Mobile-friendly design
• User experience (UX)
• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Page load speed
• Local SEO
• Voice search optimization
• Technical SEO

An audit will also generate a broad range of important and insightful metrics, including the number of mobile visitors coming to your site.

14 Mobile SEO audit steps: A quick glance

To improve your presence in mobile search results, start your audit by reviewing the homepage. Next, move to the top web pages and follow your website’s hierarchy and structure.

Along the way, take screenshots and notes of any broken images or links, and consider the overall user’s experience. Can they find info fast? Is the page too long? What action do you want them to take on this small screen? How easy is it for you to maneuver?

Prioritize universal fixes, then dig into smaller errors to gauge the extent of the work to be done.

Here’s a brief list of quick SEO steps to take:

1. Test mobile responsiveness
2. Analyze page load speed
3. Review mobile user experience
4. Review mobile content and landing page SEO
5. Evaluate local SEO citations and other elements
6. Assess technical SEO
7. Check YouTube SEO
8. Analyze configuration
9. Identify possible redirects
10. Check for intrusive pop-ups
11. Review voice search optimization
12. Examine internal and external linking
13. Evaluate relevant backlinks and profile
14. Monitor mobile keyword performance
15. Check for secure browsing
16. Analyze competitor strategies
17. Review mobile traffic

Once you complete the audit, perform regular audits at least once a year. This ensures everything stays optimized and operating accordingly. Regular audits will also keep you on top of Google’s dynamic updates.

If the idea of optimizing for mobile is too stressful, request a consultation to consider your options.

Pro tip: In Google Analytics, you can view data like bounce rate per device category and type, pages per session, and average session duration. These KPIs reveal if mobile users are engaging well.

Mobile SEO tools to use

To perform a comprehensive SEO audit, you’ll need the right tools. You can easily perform audits with free tools within the Google Workspace—Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Don’t forget to use Google’s Mobile-Friendly test as well.

If you’d like more tools to examine mobile content, snippets, metadata, and other ranking factors, try Semrush or Ahrefs. For AI recommendations and insights for optimizing landing pages and websites, team up with HawkSEM. We use our proprietary software, ConversionIQ, to deliver deep insights about customer behaviors throughout their journey.

To use Google Analytics to audit your website, follow this command path: Google Analytics > Audience > Mobile > Overview/Devices. Google Search Console will also notify you of Mobile Usability errors.

If you don’t have the time or bandwidth to take on an audit, partner with mobile SEO companies that can recommend customized solutions based on the results.

10 Mobile SEO optimization techniques and tips

There are several mobile SEO strategies and techniques you can use to make your website mobile-friendly and improve search rankings.

Here’s a brief overview of each solution, including what they have to offer:

1. Ensure a responsive web design
2. Optimize page load speed
3. Enhance local SEO
4. Incorporate dynamic serving
5. Prioritize strong mobile content
6. Focus on navigation
7. Optimize meta descriptions and title tags
8. Use an app
9. Incorporate schema markup
10. Keep tracking performance

1. Ensure a responsive web design

Responsive web design is the most popular solution because it’s convenient. You embed a code that automatically adjusts the site’s contents to fit individual users’ devices. This includes rearranging content and resizing fonts to fit small screens.

Nothing else changes, including the original URL, and this solution is easy to maintain. However, the site’s response may be somewhat limited compared to other solutions.

If you plan to make major revisions to your site, like a redesign, be mindful of any website redesign traffic loss you may experience.

2. Optimize page load speed

If you run a page speed test through Google’s PageSpeed insights, you’ll gather metrics and recommendations for improving your website’s overall speed.

Some of the main recommendations you may see include compressing images, minifying JavaScript and CSS, using browser caching, and creating AMP pages.

If you use a WordPress site, plugins are available to reduce page load times.

3. Enhance local SEO

Local SEO impacts mobile SEO, so you’ll need a strong local keyword strategy that targets the location your business operates in (if your business operates locally).

You must also update your local listings so your name, address, and phone number are correct across all directories.

Local search improvements also include a Google My Business optimization, which can influence how you show up in maps or a Google 3-pack.

4. Incorporate dynamic serving

Dynamic serving detects a user agent (mobile, tablet, or desktop) and generates a customized page with HTML and CSS optimized for that particular device.

This allows you to display heavy content (e.g., videos or high-resolution images) on your mobile pages. But it can be costly to implement. Also, accuracy in detecting the user agent depends on your solution provider’s competence and quality.

5. Prioritize strong mobile content

Use content marketing tools and strategies to create content specifically for the mobile experience.

Make your content concise, engaging, and entertaining for the reader and use a good format and structure that’s readable. For instance, add headings, subheadings, bullet points, images, videos, and shorter paragraphs.

6. Focus on navigation

The touchscreen experience for users should be seamless and intuitive. Make sure the navigation menu is easy to find and elements like buttons are easy to click. Drop-down menus and other interactive elements should be simple to engage with.

7. Optimize meta descriptions and title tags

If your pages already have a designated keyword, include those keywords in a page meta description and title tag. Keep them informative and tell the reader exactly what they should expect from the article they’ve found in SERPs.

8. Use an app

The type of app you choose is key. There are web apps that operate like regular sites to reach users on any device through their browser. However, you lose the option to include push notifications, which are often a huge part of a business app’s success.

A native or mobile app offers many benefits, such as unparalleled user engagement. Mobile apps are also excellent for branding, as the design is customized for mobile users. And advanced algorithms offer customization for individual users.

Lastly, you can use device features like offline browsing, GPS, cameras, and more.

9. Incorporate schema markup

If you’ve ever wondered how to rank in people also ask featured snippets, it’s because schema markup is present. Schema is a way of structuring website data to help Google understand it better.

Schema helps you show up as the immediate result in SERPs, offering an answer to a question without making the user scroll or click a link.

10. Keep tracking performance

Conducting a mobile SEO analysis annually or bi-annually helps you stay proactive with any improvements you need to make to the mobile experience.

Assume your competitors will be just as vigilante with their mobile SEO strategy. So keep up with the pace and maintain results to improve your conversion rate and generate revenue.

Constantly monitor and test your mobile devices and browsers to ensure everything works properly.

Making your website mobile-friendly has gone from a nice-to-have to a necessary SEO marketing component. (Image via Unsplash)

Mobile SEO best practices from experts

A mobile site’s success depends on how well it stands out to crawlers and Google’s ranking algorithms. The most effective way to compete is to avoid common SEO mistakes by adhering to Google’s recommended mobile search engine optimization practices:

• Code in HTML5
• Minimize your site’s loading time
• Compress your multimedia content (images, videos, etc.) to the lowest size possible without sacrificing resolution
• Enable image files, CSS, and JavaScript
• Avoid using IFrames
• Highlight navigation buttons and make them easy to access
• Ensure you use the correct minimum font size (16px)
• Optimize the page content to fit different screen sizes
• Ensure your content’s font is easily readable
• Make links easier to tap by placing them far apart
• Make jump links available and avoid irrelevant cross-links
• Use image alt tags
• Enable automatic login
• Highlight call-to-action buttons, including a click-to-call tab

These are just some basic mobile SEO best practices. Remember to watch for Google’s periodic mobile-friendly site updates and adopt all recommended SEO practices.

Pro tip: More ways to optimize your site for mobile include leveraging accelerated mobile pages (AMP), using Schema markup, and removing pop-ups from your site’s mobile version.

3 Examples of mobile optimized sites

Not sure how to optimize your site, or what that even looks like? There are countless websites on the internet already doing it right. To give you a better idea, look at these three mobile optimized websites

1. GameStop

GameStop is an ecommerce website and one stop shop for dedicated gamers and gaming enthusiasts.

GameStop makes its website easy to navigate by positioning the drop down menu at the top of the mobile app. It shows easily clickable buttons and links to help a user interact more efficiently. You’ll also notice a search bar at the top below the navigation, which offers instant access to specific items they’re searching for.

GameStop’s mobile site also offers users ways to pinpoint their location and search for specific items more quickly. Additionally, the website loads instantly, due to their dedicated web developers ensuring quick site speed.

From a local search perspective, they show up instantly in Google local packs and game shopping queries in their area.

2. Planet Fitness

Planet Fitness offers various ways to localize by offering a search bar to find your nearest gym.

The website loads quickly, the menu is conveniently located, the text is large and clear, and the buttons are easy to touch when it’s time to make a purchasing decision.

It also has a beautiful and responsive website design with engaging imagery and branded colors. The content dispersed on the home page is also short and sweet, making it easier to consume in one sitting.

3. Healthline

Healthline’s blog post offers digestible content and clear and legible fonts, making the mobile user experience exceptional.

At the beginning of the article, jump links offer quick navigation to portions of the page. Images and videos help separate the content to avoid fatiguing the reader. There are ad pop-ups but they aren’t intrusive to the reading experience.

When a CTA opportunity presents itself, the buttons are colorful, bold, and easy to click. As for search results, they have a keyword optimized title and meta description that helps launch them to the top of page one.

Mobile SEO vs. Desktop SEO: The key differences

Mobile and desktop versions of your site help you optimize and rank on search engines, but their strategies and techniques are different. This is because the mobile and desktop users’ behaviors are entirely different.

Here is a comparison:

1. Layout and screen size

• Mobile: Typically emphasizes optimization for elements of smaller screen sizes and layouts to make websites more readable.
• Desktop: Caters to websites viewed on larger screens and often has more complex designs.

2. Intent and user behavior

• Mobile: Caters to quick searches and shorter page sessions that are location-specific.
• Desktop: Intended for longer page sessions, which correlate with complex tasks or more in-depth research.

3. User interface and page navigation

• Mobile: Prioritizes touch screen navigation, which tends to have bigger elements like text and buttons.
• Desktop: Works better for websites with more complex navigations that require a mouse and keyboard.

4. Page speed

• Mobile: Users on mobile devices tend to expect quicker load times and site speed.
• Desktop: Users searching on desktop are a little more lenient with page load speeds.

5. Content

• Mobile: Tends to require consumable content which includes more headers, shorter paragraphs and bullet lists.
• Desktop: Allows content to have more detail and complex information since users are more likely to be on a larger screen for longer periods.

6. Voice search

• Mobile: Since users often use voice commands to perform online searches, this is a necessary optimization.
• Desktop: Voice search is available depending on the device, but not as relied on.

7. Pop-ups

• Mobile: Tends to avoid pop-ups and other flash content that interrupt the mobile user experience.
• Desktop: Occasionally encourages pop-ups and flash content although websites are slowly moving away from these intrusive elements.

8. Technical SEO

• Mobile: Involves more critical emphasis on technical aspects of SEO like Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) or structured data.
• Desktop: Focuses primarily on general aspects of technical SEO for desktop indexing.

9. Local SEO

• Mobile: A crucial part of mobile optimization since searches are often location-specific.
• Desktop: Desktop searches may not always have local search intent, so not as implemented as a tactic.

Although the different devices require different strategies, they’re still both crucial to improving website ranking. But knowing the importance of these differences ensures users have the best online experience no matter the device they’re using.

Free mobile SEO checklist

Performing a Mobile SEO Audit

• Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Semrush, Ahrefs, and ConversionIQ
• Follow the command path in Google Analytics for mobile audience insights
• Regularly check for Mobile Usability errors in Google Search Console
• Test mobile responsiveness
• Analyze page load speed
• Review mobile user experience
• Review mobile content and landing page SEO
• Evaluate local SEO citations and other elements
• Assess technical SEO
• Check YouTube SEO
• Analyze configuration
• Identify possible redirects
• Check for intrusive pop-ups
• Review voice search optimization
• Examine internal and external linking
• Evaluate relevant backlinks and profile
• Monitor mobile keyword performance
• Check for secure browsing
• Analyze competitor strategies
• Review mobile traffic

Mobile SEO Techniques and Tips

• Ensure responsive web design
• Optimize page load speed
• Enhance local SEO
• Incorporate dynamic serving
• Prioritize strong mobile content
• Focus on easy navigation
• Optimize meta descriptions and title tags
• Consider using an app
• Incorporate schema markup
• Keep tracking performance regularly

Mobile SEO Best Practices

• Code in HTML5
• Minimize site’s loading time
• Compress multimedia content
• Enable image files, CSS, and JavaScript
• Avoid using IFrames
• Highlight accessible navigation buttons
• Use correct minimum font size (16px)
• Optimize content for different screen sizes
• Make links easy to tap
• Use image alt tags and automatic login features
• Highlight CTAs, including click-to-call tabs

Hiring a Mobile SEO Service

• Get clarity on SEO pricing
• Examine current clients and their longevity
• Inquire about strategies
• Review case studies and testimonials
• Check for recorded metrics and proven results
• Evaluate the state of their own site
• Ask for examples of client’s mobile SEO pages
• Avoid unrealistic promises
• Learn which tools they use

The takeaway

Mobile-friendly optimization is a digital marketing component that shows no signs of stopping. It’s important to continuously keep all hands on deck when maintaining and analyzing your mobile SEO.

Between mobile-first indexing and the majority of searches happening via smartphones, those who provide a sub-par mobile user experience won’t see the success of sites that do. All the more reason to take time to make your site is mobile-friendly today.

Ready to get more out of your mobile SEO experience? Get in touch with HawkSEM for our mobile SEO services.