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Many Ways to Win in Mobile SEO

Bryson Meunier

Director, SEO Strategy

Resolution Media

THREE BASIC OPTIONS FOR MOBILE SITE CONFIGURATION

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GOOGLE WANTS YOU TO GO RESPONSIVE IF POSSIBLE

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BUT THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO DO THIS

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OR THIS

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OR THIS

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OR THIS

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AND THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO DO IT HERE

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Google’s feature phone guidelines don’t mention RWD: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/feature-phones

AND THEY ALSO WANT YOU TO CREATE A GREAT USER

EXPERIENCE FOR MOBILE SEARCHERS

• Location-aware

Alerts/Reminders

• Indoor Maps

• Click to call

• Mobile coupons

• Store locator

• Barcode scanner

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BUT ALL OF THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO WITH RESPONSIVE AS

GOOGLE HAS DEFINED IT

• Location-aware

Alerts/Reminders

• Indoor Maps

• Click to call

• Mobile coupons

• Store locator

• Barcode scanner

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AND THEY ALSO DEVELOP GOOGLE SEARCH SEPARATELY FOR

DESKTOP, TABLET AND SMARTPHONE

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Desktop Tablet Smartphone

I.E. THEIR FLAGSHIP PRODUCT, GOOGLE SEARCH, IS NOT RESPONSIVE

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Desktop Tablet Smartphone

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HOW RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN ADVOCATES SEE ME

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• It’s about creating content for the web, rather than native

apps, which have limited visibility in search results

• Good for content heavy sites in markets where smartphone

adoption is high

• Good for marketers that want a mobile friendly site that

works reasonably well for affluent audiences and don’t care

that much about universal accessibility or relevance

• No redirects to slow things down

• Requires no workarounds to retain link equity if it’s

appropriate for your user

THINGS I, BRYSON MEUNIER, LIKE ABOUT RWD

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• Mobile conversions grow 51% and bounce rate decreases

by 8% for UK debt solution company

• Increases traffic 400% and revenue by 188% for

photographer site

• UK ISP doubles traffic and grows sales by 10x

RWD CASE STUDIES NOT TOO HARD TO FIND

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• If you have some, please see me after panel as Google

turned up nothing

• Most increases seem to be result of moving from no mobile

site to RWD

• Sometimes lift attributed to RWD when something else was

responsible

• Might have seen same gains with dedicated mobile site or

dynamic serving

RWD SEO CASE STUDIES NOT EASY TO FIND

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• Impossible to create separate experiences when

appropriate for desktop and smartphone searchers when

done as Google defines it

• Not appropriate for emerging markets or older phones

• Not easy to make load quickly

• All content on site must be made adaptive for a positive

searcher experience, which is time consuming and

expensive

• Difficult to make hyper relevant pages about high volume

mobile queries, as RWD is usually based on OneWeb

principle

WHERE RESPONSIVE DESIGN FALLS SHORT

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FORRESTER: RWD NOT FUTURE FRIENDLY

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Source: https://www.moovweb.com/wp/forrester/

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GOOGLE: 19% OF USERS SEARCHING FROM PLACES THEY

HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO SEARCH PREVIOUSLY

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Source: Google “Mobile Search Moments”, March 2013: http://www.google.com/think/research-studies/creating-

moments-that-matter.html

THIS LEADS TO NEW QUERIES AND SEARCH VOLUMES

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NEW QUERIES REQUIRE NEW CONTENT AND/OR IA

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NEW QUERIES REQUIRE NEW CONTENT AND/OR IA

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MOBILE USERS WANT RELEVANT CONTENT

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Source: http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/entertainment-media/consumer-intelligence-series-mobile-advertising-what-do-consumers-want.jhtml

TODAY ADVERTISING IS CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT

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See video: http://www.adverblog.com/2014/03/01/this-ad-will-blow-you-away/

IF YOU CAN DELIVER A MORE RELEVANT EXPERIENCE THROUGH DYNAMIC

SERVING OR DEDICATED MOBILE SITES, WHY WOULDN’T YOU?

• Location-aware

Alerts/Reminders

• Indoor Maps

• Click to call

• Mobile coupons

• Store locator

• Barcode scanner

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SO DYNAMIC SERVING OR DEDICATED MOBILE SITES IS BEST?

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• It’s about creating content for the web, rather than native

apps, which have limited visibility in search results

• Good for taking advantage of context-specific marketing

opportunities

• Good for universal relevance and accessibility, as they can

work on feature phones

• Link equity retained through workarounds

• Additional link equity could be gained by creating a jaw

dropping user experience-- not just one that can exist on the

desktop

WHERE DYNAMIC SERVING OR DEDICATED MOBILE SITES WORK WELL

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• Leading international recruitment company with 42% of

traffic generated via organic search to their dedicated

mobile site

• UK urban clothing retailer with 1300 dedicated mobile pages

listed in Google search and 32% of traffic from organic

search

• 30% increase in speed using dynamic serving for iPhone over

desktop

DEDICATED MOBILE SITE AND DYNAMIC SERVING CASE STUDIES

NOT AS HARD TO FIND AS SOME THINK

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• Redirects and workarounds necessary for success

• A lot of marketers make simple redirect errors

• Too often dedicated mobile sites have stripped down

mobile experiences, when mobile searchers are going to be

looking for a lot of the same things that desktop searchers

are, and then some.

• Requires more complex information architecture to work

well

WHERE DYNAMIC SERVING AND DEDICATED MOBILE URLS FALL SHORT

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BIDIRECTIONAL ANNOTATIONS FOR M DOT SITES

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VARY HTTP HEADER FOR ADAPTIVE SITES

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WHAT WILL WORK BEST FOR YOUR SITES AND YOUR USERS?

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MANY WAYS TO WIN!

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Source: https://prometheuscomic.wordpress.com/2010/06/page/2/

Bryson Meunier

Director, SEO Strategy

Resolution Media

bmeunier@resolutionmedia.com

http://www.brysonmeunier.com

http://www.resolutionmedia.com

@brysonmeunier

THANK YOU!