Your site is mobile-friendly which means it’ll rank better and it meets all the requirements set by Google, right? Wrong!
Updating your website to a responsive design is a great step, but it’s important to avoid these mobile SEO mistakes to make sure you reap the benefits of going responsive.
1.Slow-loading mobile pages
Making sure your mobile pages load quickly is one of the most important features of a mobile-friendly website because users can become frustrated if a site is taking too long to load. To make sure your website pages load quickly, use Google PageSpeed Insights . The tool will notify you about issues that are slowing down your pages.
2. Burying your phone number in the content
A lot of users are looking for your number when they pull up your website on a mobile device. Make sure the phone number is front and center so users can easily tap the number and call your office.
3. Loading unplayable videos
Videos are a great way to engage users. However videos with license constraints or videos that require Flash won’t always load on a mobile device, which leads to an error message and an unhappy user. Try using HTML5 animations to guarantee that a user has a positive mobile experience.
4. Not correcting mobile-only 404s
A website page that loads on a PC might result in a 404 error for mobile users. Check all website pages to ensure you have an equivalent mobile page at a different URL.
5. Forgetting to check redirects
Check the Smartphone Crawl Errors section of Google Webmaster Tools to detect any faulty redirects that occur in the mobile version of your website. Faulty redirects are pages that either redirect from an internal page on a website to a mobile version of the homepage or simply redirect to the wrong page in a mobile website.
6. Inconsistent cross-links
If your mobile site is separate, make sure internal links are leading to mobile-optimized pages instead of desktop-optimized pages.
7. Being pushy about app downloads
Promoting your business’ app to users is fine, but don’t interrupt a user’s experience with a promotion. Not only can this cause the user to get frustrated, but it can also cause indexing issues.
Ready to go responsive before Google’s April 21 mobile-friendly reward deadline? Contact Practis, LLC at 704-887-5300.