GOOGLE ALGORITHMS AFFECT MOBILE CONTENT
In what was billed at “Mobilegeddon”, Google rolled out what analysts called the company’s biggest change to their search algorithm in years. The update involved how sites would be categorized for mobile searches, with mobile friendly sites ranking higher.
The algorithm update is the icing on the cake for what many content creators and researchers knew for the last couple years: the rise, and importance of mobile.
MOBILE CONTENT HAS EMPOWERED CREATORS
In many ways, mobile has empowered content creators. This is especially true for content sharing. There was a 259% increase in mobile sharing in 2014 (Pinterest sharing increased 131% over the same span). Users are twice as likely to share content on their mobile phone than from desktop computers, and 52% of social sharing came from mobile devices.
The sharing aspect emphasis viral content, and many mobile devices are responsible for the latest video from Jimmy Fallon or an article from The Onion appearing on your timeline.
MOBILE SEO IS ARCHITECTURE
This new update makes content creators and brands become aware of the entire site. And many web designers have already begun making websites that target mobile devices instead of desktops.
Simplicity and speed are two keys of “mobile friendliness”. And this is the umbrella that content creators must under.
Readability, and ability to scan your content, are two key features of online writing. But this may be taken to the extreme as users access your content on 5 inch screens.
CREATE CONTENT SPECIFICALLY FOR THE MOBILE PAGE
Businesses that are not mobile friendly could lose up to a third of search traffic. If you haven’t thought about mobile, you aren’t alone. An estimated two-thirds of Fortune 100 companies are not mobile friendly.
Let’s go straight to Google for the ingredients that go into a mobile friendly site, where “text is readable without tapping or zapping, tap targets are spaced appropriately, and the page avoids unplayable content or horizontal scrolling”.
So how do you create mobile content that falls in line with Google’s new algorithm? Let Nao count the ways.
- Make your text readable without pinching: it may be an obvious point that you want your users to be able to read your text, but Google has made it a necessity that you make your text large enough to read without users having to scroll or zoom in.
- Space your text and links properly: as part of the algorithm update, make sure that your links are spaced properly so users don’t accidentally click other links close by
- No Flash: before, Flash was a nuisance. Post algorithm update, sites that continue to use Flash will get docked in the “mobile friendliness” category
- Focus on writing architecture: with emphasis placed on ease of reading, it’s more important than ever that your written content is scan-able and scroll-able. This means using clear headers to differentiate topics.
