Fact: mobile sites that load in 5 seconds earn up to 2x more mobile ad revenue than sites that load in 19 seconds (according to Google).
What’s the big deal about 19 seconds? That’s currently how long it takes for the average mobile site to load over a 3G connection.
So that’s quite a discrepancy there.
5 seconds is actually fairly generous. Google also says 53% of people will abandon a page if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
So that’s really your goal: less than 3 seconds. How fast does your website load? Google actually offers a free online test to check.
That’s the top SEO problem small and local business websites face. Let me explain some of the other leading ones:
1) Not Using Rich Snippets (Schema metadata)
Okay. Fair warning: kinda geeky stuff here. You may not have even heard of schema metadata.
…And neither have most small business owners. But it’s a huge competitive edge because it often gets overlooked.
Schema’s simply a small bit of code you put on your web pages to help search engines rank them where they should go. It helps search engines understand what your web page means, versus just what it says.
It can give you a nice boost to your search rankings. With WordPress, there are plugins available that make this easy.
If your website has static pages, schema can be hardcoded into each page also. It can also be time-sensitive, as it can help display upcoming events at your business (if you own a bar, for example).
2) Not Optimizing Your Anchor Text
This gets a little confusing. Any links from sites outside of yours should have a variety of anchor text. Less than 5% should have text exactly matching your keywords.
Now with internal links, from one of your own pages to another, the game changes. Google doesn’t penalize you for optimized anchor text. At the same time, your anchor text gives Google signals about what keywords your pages should rank for.
On top of that, your website visitors don’t want to see optimized anchor text on every link. Otherwise, they become suspicious you’re trying to game Google’s algorithm and leave.
You should use the same key phrase 50% of the time at max. To mix things up, you can use variations of it, or different phrases entirely, like “click here.”
3) Not Breaking Up Your Content for Scanning Readers
Your website visitors read around 28% of your content at most. Possibly less than that. Otherwise, they just peek at your headline, sub headers, and a few paragraphs of text here and there.
So you can’t have big long blocks of text. Your site shouldn’t be like reading a print magazine.
Write like this post. There are 3-4 sentences per paragraph (or so). A few paragraphs per subhead. Short sentences. Even broken ones (just like this one).
This reduces your “bad” bounce rate (the number of people who visit your website once and leave because they can’t find what they want). And it keeps visitors on your page longer. It also indirectly makes your content more shareable.
Google pays attention to all those metrics when ranking your site for search.
Does the “Perfect Mobile Website” Exist?
No. There’s no such thing. But you can create one that makes your users, and Google, happy. And when you do, you’re rewarded with gobs of traffic consisting of people eager to buy from you. Contact us today for high-quality SEO services to optimize your site for mobile.
