Why should I optimise my website for mobile?

If you’re not yet convinced of the benefits of optimising your local business website for mobile devices, read our article on [insert title and link here].

How can I mobile optimise my local business website?

In this guide, we share ways to optimise your local business’ website, from making it mobile-friendly for search engines to improving the overall design and user experience. 

Let’s get started.

1. Test your website, is it mobile-friendly? 

The first step is to check if your website is mobile-friendly. To do this, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Simply enter the website’s URL, and Google will tell you if it passes its mobile test or not.What should you do if your site does not pass the test?If your site doesn’t pass, there are plenty of things you can do.

It is often useful to check the help section of your website builder to see how to enable a responsive design for the site. In some cases, replacing the template with a responsive one is the fastest way to achieve this.

When designing your website you need to ensure it provides the best viewing experience for desktop, mobile, and tablet. A mobile-responsive layout ensures everything on your site including buttons, images, and links are accessible on all devices.

Regularly check if your website is optimised for mobile devices, and make the necessary updates when you need to. When a user arrives at your site when they are out and about looking for a product or service, a mobile friendly site will support their confidence in your business trust in your business.

At LocalMark we build websites to be mobile-friendly as standard — always following “mobile-first” design principles. 

2. Improve Your Site’s Load Time With Google PageSpeed Insights

Another essential factor in mobile optimisation is how fast your page loads, AKA page speed.This is the amount of time it takes for web pages to fully load when someone visits your site.

A faster experience is a better experience, in fact slow load times are the number one reason why visitors leave a site. Did you know that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load? 

Google rewards these fast-loading sites with a boost in rankings, and as page speed is a ranking factor on both desktop and mobile searches, so it is worth getting it right. 

Remember that a high bounce rate, which Google takes as a bad sign, will lower your ranking. 

In order to check your website’s page speed, use Google PageSpeed Insights. Just enter your URL and Google will give you a score from 0 to 100, and offer some suggestions on how to make your page faster.

At LocalMark we can help you optimise your website for mobile and desktop, ensuring faster page speeds.

3. Use Responsive Design

Responsive design is when a website automatically adjusts to fit the screen it’s being viewed on, whether that’s a desktop computer, a tablet, or a mobile phone. A website with a responsive design is vital in the modern digital age as more users are accessing the same websites across devices - think YouTube, Instagram or Netflix.

A mobile-friendly dynamic design usually comes from using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript frameworks. It’s important to optimise icons, such as logos, and photographs you use on your website. This means making sure images are the right dimensions, that the file size isn’t too large, and they look good across devices.

Testing thoroughly on different sized devices and screens will help you to do this.

Remember, responsive design is far more user-friendly, which Google ultimately wants. Therefore it’s better for local SEO, plus you only have to maintain one website!

4. Focus on the User Experience

As mentioned earlier, a prominent factor in mobile optimisation is user experience. Google wants to make sure that their users have a positive experience, and can find what they’re looking for easily and quickly.

A number one priority is to make sure your website is accessible. This means people with disabilities should be able to use it without any issues. You do this by using proper alt text for images, including transcripts on video, and using easy-to-read text. Accessibility also means that you optimise for the relevant languages in your area. So for example, for a local business in Barcelona, it could be worth having a Catalan version of a website, as it is the primary language spoken in Cataluyna.

The design of the website should be created to be thumb-friendly. People use their thumbs to control their phones, and people want to navigate websites easily and quickly. The buttons and links should be big enough to read and press without having to zoom in.

This is one of the main problems on websites that are not mobile-friendly as they often have small buttons that are difficult to use. Ideally, customers shouldn’t have to zoom in on anything, so ensure all text on your website is large enough to read. 

5. Use Local Keyword Optimisation

Local businesses should not be competing for the same high competition keywords as the large named brands. When creating a keyword strategy for local SEO, start by creating a list of relevant keywords to your business. Afterwards begin the process of researching the keywords that are most relevant to your business in your local area. This ensures you can rank higher for location based keywords when users are on mobile devices and actively looking for businesses. 

The best way to work out local keywords is to think about what customers type into Google when looking for a local business. For example, if someone is looking for a Chinese food, they might type in “Chinese takeaway near me,” “Chinese delivery,” or “Chinese takeaway Croydon.”

If you’re a builder in Waterloo, there is no point in appearing in search results for a builder in Cardiff. Instead, your objective is to rank for ‘Builder Waterloo’ rather than just ‘Builder’. By adding a location parameter it is far more relevant for people.

Make sure you incorporate the location-specific keywords into your website. Creating location based pages can also be a good way to rank for location keywords. 

Appearing more frequently in local search results should improve your mobile traffic as a result of targeting these more localised keywords. Creating a solid keyword strategy is one of the fundamentals of our local SEO services.

6. Move the Navigation Bar on Mobile

Your website navigation bar allows people to find the information they’re looking for.

The navigation bar is usually at the top of the page on a desktop. However, on a mobile device, the navigation bar can be moved to the bottom of the screen because it’s easier to reach. As most people hold their phones with one hand and use their thumb to navigate, it can make it difficult to reach the top of the page.

By moving the navigation bar to the bottom, you’re making it easier for people on mobile devices to use your website. 

7. Optimise Title Tags and Meta Descriptions for Mobile

Since the title tags and meta description show up in search results, they need to be relevant and interesting. SEO meta descriptions need to be optimised for mobile instead of desktop ideally. Remember that 64% of searches happen on mobile devices!

The best way to do this is to keep the titles short and to the point (maximum 60 characters). Include the focus keyword, but keep the title easy to read for the general public

Write meta descriptions that hook the user quickly, Google will only display the first 160 characters, so make sure you keep within this limit.

8. Optimise Your Website for Voice Search

Researching the kinds of queries and keywords that are used most often when using voice search technology is becoming more important. You need to determine the wording and phrases which are most likely to be used by potential customers when speaking into their device. 

By writing content for voice search relating to your business it will have a higher chance to rank for voice related keywords. Focus on including long-tail keywords and phrases in natural language, steering clear of abbreviations that could be hard for voice search queries to be understood. 

Appearing higher for local search terms is important for your local business because mobile searches are more likely to return your business at the top of results.

Always constantly track the performance of your website’s voice search results and make any necessary updates to boost visibility for your site’s mobile version.

9. Avoid Advertisements

Google does not like it when intrusive ads that interrupt the user experience, pop up.

This means you should avoid pop-ups, auto-playing videos, and anything else that might be considered annoying to the user.

10. Claim and Optimise Your Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile is essential for any local business nowadays. 

Just by creating a Google Business Profile listing and completing the verification steps, your business’ location will start to pop up for local searches in Maps as well. 86% of customers use Google Maps to locate businesses nearby. If it’s convenient for customers to visit your business when they find you close by, you’re far more likely to make that sale. In fact, 50% of users visit a store within a day of conducting a local search.

Once your Google business listing is claimed and verified, be sure to fill out the profile completely. This is what helps your site appear higher in search rankings. Remember to check your business profile regularly to maximise its impact.

Another huge benefit of the Google Business Profile is to be able to get Google Reviews from your customers. Online reviews can help you appear higher in the Google local 3 pack, which is a great way to get more visibility in front of the right local customers. More than 70% of consumers read product reviews before making a purchase, and more than 63% feel more confident about buying from a business that features testimonials.

To wrap things up

Local SEO forms an essential part of any digital marketing strategy for businesses that want to attract local customers, but without a mobile optimised website you’re likely to come unstuck.

Mobile optimisation forms a crucial part of local SEO strategy.

Reaching more mobile users is crucial as mobile users are more likely to interact with your business through calls, store visits, or other actions such as via your Google Business Profile. Overall, mobile optimisation is an invaluable investment for any local business.

Who are you and what is this?

This post is one of many aimed at helping to support owners, managers and franchisees with growing their local business. It's been lovingly researched and written by the expert team behind LocalMark, a London UK-based local SEO service that helps connect UK trade, service & retail businesses with nearby customers. If you found this helpful and could benefit from more of the same, be sure to share, follow us on social and sign up for our newsletter (links below).