Now that almost every mobile phone is internet enabled, it’s important to consider every aspect of the mobile online experience. So how do you make sure your site is performing as well as it can in the mobile SERPs?

What’s the difference?

In terms of actual rankings, there is usually very little difference (if any) between desktop and mobile SERPs. If you’re ranking number one for ‘blogging tips’ on your laptop, you probably are on your mobile as well.

The real difference is that for ‘dumb phones’ (i.e. not a smart phone) Google may transcode your site into a rather unattractive plain text version to accommodate the less than desirable capabilities of the phone. Believe it or not, some phones still can’t display all your fancy Javascript.

Analytics programs tend to use a snippet of Javascript to track visitors, so you may also be seeing inaccurate visitor figures.

Websites for dummies

The unpalatable truth is that the only solution is to create a 100% XHTML compliant ‘dumb phone friendly’ version of your site that Google can serve instead of transcoding it.

The added bonus is that you get a rather lovely mobile icon next to your result in the mobile SERPs which may increase CTR amongst dumb phone owners who have grown tired of looking at plain text. You might also see an increase in conversion rates amongst mobile users for having a more attractive site.

It’s important to remember that users land on your site on a variety of pages, not just your homepage, so an entire mobile friendly site (not just homepage) is a must. This also allows you to install mobile specific analytics to gain a better insight in how your mobile site is performing.

Should I invest in mobile SEO?

As with most things in business, that depends on your market. If you only have two visits a week from someone with a dumb phone, it’s probably not worth it (unless they’re your only two visits).

That said, even the best sites can suffer from translation to a 3-4 inch screen, so a mobile friendly version may also perform better with smart phone users as well. Certainly something worth considering.

Dumb phone visits may not show up in your analytics, but your raw server logs may give you some idea of how many you get. Check them today.

Please leave your comments or opinions below. 

Image Credit: airgap

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 19th, 2011 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimisation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.