ADOPTING

A MOBILE-FIRST SEO

PHILOSOPHY

MARCH 2017

ABOUT NETELIXIR

2

OUR TEAM: 100+ fanatically analytical search

marketers, operating in three

countries.

OUR PARTNERSHIPS:We are a Preferred Partner of both

Google and Bing .

OUR VALUE: We combine our expertise and our

proprietary technology to help

businesses get found, convert visitors

to customers and acquire game-changing consumer insights.

PAID SEARCH& SHOPPING

MANAGEMENT

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

PAID SOCIAL MANAGEMENT

TECHNOLOGY{ }SERVICES CONSULTING++

LXR:MULTI-CHANNEL ONLINE

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY

LXR MARKETPLACE:FREE SEARCH MARKETING TOOLS

FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

LXR GUIDE:PAID SEARCH MANAGER FOR

SMALL BUSINESSES

WEB ANALYTICS

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

ON DEMAND TECH SUPPORT

ABOUT CHRISITE LABARCA

4

Christie has worked in the digital marketing industry for about eight

years, with a special emphasis on the technical elements in

organic search and SEO. Extensive experience in auditing and

identifying causes of deeply-rooted technical issues that impact

SEO performance for small, medium and large websites.

At NetElixir, Christie helps manage organic search for clients, and

places emphasis on educating our clients and their teams.

ABOUT PRABHA DIVOVICH

As a Search Marketing Analyst for the SEO Team, Prabha

provides analytic insights to drive SEO strategies.

Prior to joining NetElixir, Prabha worked in management

consulting for a Big 4 firm and in academia, performing

independent research.

4 INTERACTIVE SESSIONS (2PM ET, EVERY DAY)

Tuesday 3/14: The 2017 State of SEO

Wednesday 3/15: Adopting a Mobile-First SEO

Philosophy

Thursday 3/16: The Role of User Experience and

Web Development in SEO

Friday 3/17: Building a Winning Retail SEO Strategy

http://info.netelixir.com/mobile.html

GET YOUR MOBILE SEO AUDIT

POLL

Who do you design

your website for?

A. Desktop Users

B. Mobile Users

C. Tablet Users

D. Other/Don’t Think About It

AGENDA

Introduction to “Mobile-First”

• Mobile-Friendly vs. Mobile Optimized

• Why Should I Be Mobile-First? Evidence from Our Clients

• How do I Optimize for Mobile?

– Design Elements (Properly Adjusting Touch Elements)

– Markup Your Website for Google (Semantic Content)

– Page Speed & Performance

• Importance of Mobile Speed

– Speed Index

– Requests

– Page Weight

• Live Mobile Audit – We will take you through a live test of

your mobile speed performance!

WHAT IS MOBILE-FIRST?

Mobile-first means that Google

literally now prioritizes mobile first.

MOBILE-FRIENDLY VS. MOBILE OPTIMIZED

MOBILE-FRIENDLY MOBILE OPTIMIZED

Mobilegeddon: Google Mobile-Friendly Update

(May 2015)

“Mobile-First” Algorithm Update

(January 2017)

Desktop site adjusted to also work on mobile

devices, desktop user was primary focus Mobile user is the primary focus

Site was designed with desktop-first Follows Mobile-First Design

(includes Responsive Design)

Need to compete Provides a competitive edge,

but rapidly becoming a necessity

• Playing field has changed with mobile-first algorithm update.

• Is it necessary to adapt? How long can I wait before not being

mobile-first impacts my bottom line?

• Three examples of clients who are SEO optimized, but not

mobile optimized.

HOW IMPORTANT IS HAVING A

MOBILE OPTIMIZED SITE?

DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES, SAME TRENDS

Three clients, three entirely different industries, one major similarity:

YOY traffic declining on average

CLIENT 1

CLIENT 2

CLIENT 3

THE IMPACT OF GOOGLE ALGORITHM UPDATES

• Considering seasonality,

traffic declines are

consistent with certain

Google algorithm updates,

especially mobile updates.

• Keep in mind that Google

typically begins to test

algorithm updates a few

months prior to launching an

official update. Penguin

Update

Penguin

Update

Mobile

Update

Mobilegeddon

Mobilegeddon

Mobile

Update

Mobile

Update

Mobile First

Mobile First

Mobile First

WHY IS TRAFFIC DECLINING?

We have consistently found across this case study of clients, that even if our desktop rankings are increasing, mobile rankings

are declining due to non-mobile optimized sites.

• The number of people searching on mobile devices is increasing. Simply put, less people are searching on desktop.

Lower search volume on desktop = lower traffic.

• If you’re not mobile optimized, you’re losing out on the users that have shifted their primary device.

CLIENT 1

CLIENT 2 CLIENT 3

AND OF COURSE, THERE’S THE COMPETITION…

• A competitive analysis from Client 1 has revealed a correlation between mobile and

desktop rankings.

• Non-mobile optimized competition are seeing drops in mobile keyword rankings.

• Mobile optimized competitors are, in contrast, seeing consistent growth into 2017.

MOBILE RANKINGS DESKTOP RANKINGS

SIDE NOTE: THIS DOES NOT MEAN COMPANY IS TANKING

• Despite a decline in YOY traffic, we’re seeing increases in YOY user engagement metrics, conversion

rates, and AOV (average order value).

• Positive Indicators: Sites are actually attracting higher quality traffic.

Reasons for attracting higher quality traffic:

• Consistency is key: Legacy SEO clients that

have been with us for years have produced high-

quality content, natural links, etc.

• As a result, these clients have seen improved

desktop rankings, especially for long-tail

keywords.

• Ultimately, bottom-line (YOY revenue) has not

been hit as hard as it would’ve, had we not been

optimizing for other ranking factors.

CLIENT 2

SO…

HOW NECESSARY

IS IT TO BE MOBILE OPTIMIZED?

• The question is not how necessary it is, but how

fast we can get there.

• Not being mobile optimized acts as a glass ceiling.

• The only way to keep a competitive edge is by ensuring

the technical aspects of the websites catch up with the

algorithms.

• Also don’t forget, not having a mobile-first design is also

impacting desktop rankings. This is quickly becoming a

stronger ranking factor going forward in 2017.

HOW DO I OPTIMIZE

FOR MOBILE?

Design elements should be properly

configured for a mobile user.

• Font Size: Shouldn’t have

to zoom.

• Touch Elements: Shouldn’t be

too close .

• Viewport: Content (webpage)

should be set properly according

to the device size.

MARKING UP

YOUR SITE (VIA STRUCTURED DATA)

• Structured data helps search engines pull key information

from your site to deliver to the user directly on the SERP.

• Drives click-through rate, enhances the overall user

experience.

MOBILE PAGE SPEED

Influences

• Search rankings & user experience.

Impact Of Slow Mobile Speed

• Increase mobile bounce rate and

decrease search rankings for both

desktop and mobile search results.

THREE KEY METRICS

FOR MOBILE SPEED

• Speed Index

• Total Requests

• Page Weight

LIVE MOBILE SITE AUDIT

Audit your Mobile Performance!

Go to WebPageTest.org

LIVE MOBILE SITE AUDIT

1. Go to https://www.webpagetest.org

2. Put in Your Site URL

3. Change Test Location to Nexus 5

4. Change Browser to Nexus 5 – Chrome

5. Set Connection to Mobile 3G Fast

6. Click Start Test

Recommended: Capture Video (to watch the page render)

MOBILE AUDIT: SPEED INDEX

• Google recommends a speed index of 5,000 or less

What is Speed Index? What is its impact on my SEO?

• Speed index is the average time (in milliseconds) at which visible parts

of the page are displayed. Higher speed index means slower page

load.

How do I Improve my Speed Index?

• Decrease the weight of the elements above the fold.

(Reduce picture size, use lighter fonts, etc. to have them load faster.)

MOBILE PAGE SPEED: SPEED INDEX

MOBILE AUDIT: TOTAL REQUESTS

MAIN ELEMENT TARGET

REQUEST RAGE

JS<10

(not including pixels)

CSS <5

Images <30

Font 0-3

TOTAL 100

What is its impact on your SEO?

• Having so many requests increases the page speed through

the transfer of information, increasing the page weight.

How do I improve my Speed Index?

• Using Chrome Development Tools, you can see each request

organized by type (JS, Images, CSS, Fonts, etc.), and identify

which ones are the heaviest.

MOBILE AUDIT: TOTAL REQUESTS

MOBILE

PAGE SPEED:

PAGE WEIGHT

What is its impact on your SEO?

• Increases the page load time. A heavier page means longer

load time. Oftentimes, images are the heaviest element

impacting page weight.

How do I improve my Page Weight?

• Decrease the number of images and compress image size.

Find a different way to present elements, particularly elements

above the fold.

• Main images should be no larger than 100 kb. Other

images should be in the 20 to 50 kb range.

WATCH YOUR MOBILE SPEED IN ACTION!

MOBILE AUDIT

WHAT TO

REMEMBER

Too many resources required

• Every element requires a connection to be established.

Too much loading above the fold

• Too many requests (especially JavaScript and CSS) that

occur in the head or before rendering.

Images

• Images are either too big in weight (kbs) or there are too

many.

http://info.netelixir.com/mobile.html

GET YOUR MOBILE SEO AUDIT

QUESTIONS

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