The Mobilegeddon has completely disrupted search engine optimization. For SEO experts and serious analysts of mobile, this Google algorithm change didn’t come unexpectedly. In 2015, the number of mobile internet users exceeded the number of people who use desktops for browsing. Since bloggers’ popularity and revenue depend on the number of website visitors, mobile optimization is a matter of the utmost importance to them. In this article, we’re going to share useful tips that will help bloggers reach and engage mobile users, and increase their traffic.
How Bloggers can Engage Mobile Users
Optimize Your Photos for Mobile
Mobile optimization is not much different from the regular on-page SEO practices. Big photos need more time to load on all devices. In addition to this, Smartphones are usually slower than desktop computers, plus their users often have limited data plans. That’s why you need to optimize every photo on your blog. The easiest way to do this (on a WordPress blog) is to use photo optimization plugins, like Smush. Google has recently released Guetzli, their new perceptual JPEG encoder. This program can decrease the size of every JPEG more than 35% and still retain the same image quality. It’s an open-source software, so you can download it and use it completely free.
Avoid Long Posts
Scrolling is much harder on small screens. When posting articles that are 1,500 or 2,000 words long, you should keep in mind that mobile readers will need to scroll for eternity to read all of the content. Sometimes they might touch their screen and jump to another part of the post by accident, which usually requires more scrolling. That’s why you should avoid long posts. If you want to share more information with your readers, divide it into several posts and make use of internal links. This way your readers will easily read and navigate your content, and your blog will also get a few extra SEO points.
Insert Page Jumps
Readers often visit blogs to check only one piece of information. For example, food blogs have high bounce rates, because visitors often come to read a certain recipe while cooking. By helping these visitors, you’ll make your blog more popular. Easy navigation is the solution for their issue. You can improve your page navigation by adding page jumps. These links take visitors to a certain part of the post (usually a paragraph headline). If you’re using WordPress, create these links in a text editor. You just need to add “ids” to the parts of the post you want to link to and create a shortlist of links at the beginning of the post.
The page jump code usually looks like this:
At the post headline:
<h1 id=”unique-identifier”>I am the target text.</h1>
In the navigation bar, at the beginning of the post:
<a href=”#unique-identifier”>Click me!</a>
Mobile Requires Responsive Design
Responsive websites change their layouts depending on the device that visitors use. They automatically shrink the content and make it fit into the smallest smartphone screens. If you are using the generic WordPress themes, you can easily make your website responsive from the admin panel. If you want to buy a new theme, make sure that you choose a responsive one. The WordPress community also offers a long list of responsive plugins. They can be used for creating responsive menus, forms, sliders and social share icons. Websites and blogs built from scratch require a complete redesign, or at least a few serious HTML, CSS, and JavaScript tweaks in order to shift to the responsive layout.
Create a Mobile App
If mobile users are your main audience, investment in a mobile app will produce a great ROI in the long run. Smartphone users would rather browse the web through mobile apps than through regular mobile browsers. Apps also come with a few additional advantages. They come with in-app messaging that alerts your readers about new blog posts, offers or updates. Many companies use mobile apps to collect user data. Large amounts of data can be used for creating effective marketing strategies and campaigns, targeting a narrow audience and increasing your blog’s conversions.
Today, optimizing a blog for mobile is as important as having a blog in the first place. Fortunately, most blogging platforms and CMSs offer hundreds of responsive design layouts. Sometimes these layouts need some additional fixes, so make sure that you test every layout and element before adding them to your website. By targeting mobile users, you’ll drastically increase the number of readers and earn more revenue from your blog.
Does your business have a mobile app and a mobile-optimized blog? Let us know in the comments below.
