In today's digital marketing world, mobile usage is incredibly prominent. Mobile internet usage is growing by the day and currently accounts for over 55% of total internet traffic.
It is no wonder that Google is now focused on mobile-first indexing, meaning the search engine will only rank your site highly if it is mobile-friendly. When thinking about SEO, priority must be given to mobile users and avoiding common mobile SEO mistakes. Here are the five most harmful SEO mistakes to avoid in 2021:
1. Slow loading sites
It takes an average of three seconds for a mobile user to abandon a site that has not fully loaded. Unfortunately, once you start experiencing high bounce rates, you lose more potential clients.
Since this is a problem with the DNA of your site, a digital marketing agency like InternetMarketingGeeks.com can help you resolve this problem and bounce back on the path to success.
2. Large interstitials
Mobile users hate intrusive interstitials whenever they are browsing through a site. Essentially, this means you need to end those pop-up ads, email sign-ups requests, and banners that cover most of the screen. Having large interstitials makes your site unbearable and provides a poor user experience that will lower your site's organic rankings.
3. Failure to optimize for mobile keywords and local SEO
You need to refine your content creation process if you want to enhance your mobile SEO experience. Firstly, you need to understand that mobile users make shorter queries and use voice search programs for most searches. As such, you need to create content based on these mobile keywords if you want your site to rank higher and attract more traffic.
Equally, you can never undermine the importance of local SEO as mobile users are more interested in local search results. This is because they tend to search for products and services near them, and it is these kinds of searches that add value to your business.
4. Differences between desktop and mobile site
Drastic differences between your desktop and mobile site will negatively affect your SEO. AI is rapidly changing the internet, and search engine bots and mobile users will quickly realize these differences as there will be lots of blocked files, unplayable content, and bad redirects. Cumulatively, these issues only make your mobile site harder to use and less appealing to search engines.
5. Poor design of your mobile site
Finally, you need to consider the design of your mobile site if you want a mobile-friendly site. Common mistakes that show a site is not properly designed for mobile use are:
- Illegible fonts
- Misuse of whitespace
- Unresponsive web layout
- Trouble finding call-to-action buttons
- Poor navigation menu
- Lack of well-coordinated color schemes
- Content that is not well spaced
You need a holistic evaluation of your site's design if you want it to have a better appeal to mobile users. Failure to focus on any of these design mistakes will see you lose more valuable traffic as user satisfaction is the most important factor for your targeted customers.
Endnote
You cannot keep up with the competition in your industry unless you start attracting more traffic from mobile users. Strive to avoid these mobile SEO mistakes, and you will be on the right path to success.
