Max Prin gave a presentation on technical SEO tactics for the current mobile landscape. Some of the key points discussed included: - It is important to optimize sites for mobile-first indexing as mobile searches now surpass desktop searches and Google is slowly rolling out mobile-first indexing. - Page speed is a very important ranking factor for mobile users. Sites need to be optimized for speed by compressing images, leveraging caching, and using technologies like HTTP/2. - Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) can provide very fast loading speeds through features like prerendering and caching in the AMP Cache. AMP content is prominently featured in mobile search results and can increase clicks and conversions.

1. Max Prin, Head of Technical SEO, Merkle
@maxxeight
Technical SEO Tactics for the Current Mobile Landscape

2. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit
“It’s all about mobile now…”

3. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit
“Page speed is very important…”

4. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit
“AMP is great!”

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Mobile-First Indexing
(user-agent = smartphone)

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Mobile-first index: how?

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Mobile-first index is slow to roll out
76.7%
14.7%
8.6%
Googlebot Googlebot-Smartphone Other Googlebots

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Track mobile-first indexing yourself
You can can log the user-agent used in HTML comments
Sample PHP code:
<!--
User-agent: <?php echo $_SERVER[”HTTP_USER_AGENT”]; ?>
-->
The cached page on Google will show which
user-agent Googlebot used to crawl the page.
@JohnMu
John Mueller
Google

12. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit12
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Billions
Western Europe
North America
Middle East & Africa
Latin America
Central & Eastern Europe
Asia-Pacific
Worldwide Mobile Internet Users
Source: Mobile Internet Users, eMarketer, January 2018
Mobile-first index: why?

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Mobile-first index: why?
Mobile searches surpassed
desktop searches in 2015.
Source: Google Internal Data, for 10 countries including the US and Japan, April 2015.

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0
50
100
150
200
250
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
Millions
Source: Mobile Internet Users – United States, eMarketer, January 2018
API
App indexing
announced
10/13 Google
acquired
Firebase
9/11
Mobile-
friendly label
11/14
Mobilegeddon
4/15
Mobile-friendly
testing tool
5/16
AMP project
announced
10/15
Mobile-
interstitial
penalty
8/16
Mobile-first
indexing
announcement
11/16
PWAs created
6/15 PWA
announcement
11/16
Mobile-friendliness
API
1/17
Mobile speed
ranking factor
1/18 (7/18)
Mobile-first
index roll-out
announced
3/18
Mobile-friendly
label removed
8/16
Google
officially
recommends
responsive
6/12
Google
suggest
adaptive (1
HTML, 2 CSS)
2/12
US mobile Internet users & Google’s mobile updates
@AlexisKSanders
Alexis Sanders
Merkle

15. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit15
However, mobile phones…
…have smaller screens
(less space for content)
…are slower
(less processing power, memory)
…can have weak connections
(3G, 4G < Cable, Fiber)

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SEO
Search Engine Experience Optimization

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Search Engine Experience Optimization
Website features
Relevant
Mobile-friendly
Fast
Secure
Popular
How?
-
Content
RWD*
Site speed
HTTPS
Links
Rankings
-
Up
Not MF = down
Slow = down
Up*
Up
SEO = making sure search engines ”understand” optimized experiences

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Mobile-Friendly vs. Mobile-Optimized
(for both users and search engines)

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Graceful Degradation / Progressive Enhancement
Devices (hardware, screen size), browsers, network, permissions, etc.

21. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit21
3 ways to implement your mobile website
Responsive
Web Design
Dynamic
Serving
Separate
URLs
Same URL (vs. desktop)
Same HTML (vs. desktop)
Potential/main concern Page speed Content parity Content parity

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<link> tagging map (for websites with separate URLs + international sites + AMP)
Source: https://ampbyexample.com/introduction/internationalization/

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Ensure parity between mobile and desktop versions

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Ensure parity between mobile and desktop versions

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Ensure parity between mobile and desktop versions
 (Accessible) Content
• Page title
• Meta description
• H1, H2, etc.
• Words
• Links (nofollow)
• Images (alt text)
• Videos
 <link> tags
• hreflang
• rel=“prev/next”
 Structured Data
https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/mobile-first-index/
Mobile-first Index
Tabs
Accordions
“Click-to-expand”
Loaded automatically

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SERP Features & Voice Search
(structured data markup)

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A lot of SERP features are powered by structured data

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Leveraging structured data markup
Structured data markup has 2 components:
 Vocabulary: schema.org
 Format:
• Microdata
• JSON-LD

29. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit29
Leveraging structured data markup
Google supports a ton of markups
that can enhance search results:
- Product, reviews, ratings
- Events, music, movie, recipes, etc.
Rich Result = Higher Click-Through Rate (CTR)
https://developers.google.com/schemas/reference/

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Schema.org markup generator (technicalseo.com)

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Schema.org markup generator (technicalseo.com)
 Generate JSON-LD (and some microdata)
• Website (Site Name, Sitelinks Searchbox)
• Breadcrumbs
• Person (jobTitle, worksFor, sameAs)
• Organization (Logo, Contacts, Social Profiles)
• Local Business (Address, OpeningHoursSpecification)
• Article (NewsArticle, BlogPosting)
• Product (Offer, AggregateRating, Reviews)
• Event
• Recipe
• Job Posting
 Easily send code to Google’s testing tool
https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/schema-markup-generator/

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Mobile click-through-rates by ranking position

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Voice search results
Knowledge Graph Featured Snippets

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94% of featured snippet URLs rank in the top five

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Page Speed
(site latency)

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Source: Soasta

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Source: Soasta

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Source: Soasta

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Images:
41%

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Speed matters
Compress images
Leverage browser caching
Use system fonts
Use HTTP/2
 Multiplexing, binary headers,
header compression, server push
https://raventools.com/blog/free-ssl-http2/

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Do load times impact Google’s crawl?

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AMP
(accelerated mobile pages)

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Why are AMPs so fast? (in a nutshell)
AMP HTML+JS AMP Cache (CDN) Prerendering

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over 60%
of the clicks to AMP in Google search go to non-news sites

45. The Total Economic Impact™ of AMP
across publishers and e-commerce
20%
Conversion
10%
Traffic
60%
Pages/visit

46. AgendaCategory page
<amp-sidebar>
- Navigation
<amp-carousel>
<amp-list>
- Product organization
<amp-form>
- Searching
<amp-bind>
- Filtering and sorting
<amp-access>
- Logged in/out

47. AgendaProduct page
<amp-video>
<amp-accordion>
- Product images/details
<amp-form>
<amp-carousel>
- Comments/reviews
<amp-selector>
- Tabs/Thumbnails
<amp-bind>
- Color/size selection
<amp-state>
- Add to cart

48. AgendaCheckout
Payment Requests API
- Chrome only
<amp-form>
- Checkout within AMP
<amp-install-serviceworker>
- Fast transition to HTML

49. AgendaDevelopment
& tracking
<amp-analytics>
- Google Analytics, Adobe, etc.
<amp-experiments>
- A/B testing
Custom JavaScript (coming, someday)

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AMP documentation
https://www.ampproject.org/docs/reference/components https://www.ampbyexample.com

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AMP tools
https://search.google.com/test/amp https://technicalseo.com/seo-tools/amp/

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What about “SEO”?
AMP is not a ranking factor
A “really fast” site doesn’t rank better than a “fast” site

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What about “SEO”?
AMP is not a ranking factor
A “really fast” site doesn’t rank better than a “fast” site
Faster is better (+ AMP cache/pre-loading)
AMP = mobile-friendly
SERP visibility

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Progressive Web AMPs
(the ultimate configuration)

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What’s a progressive web app?
Native apps
Web apps

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What’s a progressive web app?
Reliable and Fast
App shell cached locally (on 1st load)
• Fast loading when offline or with slow
connection (on subsequent loads)
Mobile-friendly (responsive)
Secure (HTTPS)
Engaging
App icon on device’s home screen
Push notifications

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What’s a progressive web app?

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AMP as entry point into your PWA
<amp-install-serviceworker>

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AMP as entry point into your PWA
1) User gets the AMP from the SERP
2) Service worker is installed on device
• Once activated, SW caches the
“app shell” and initial data
3) User clicks on a (internal) link
4) Service worker “hijacks” the click
5) Pre-cached PWA loads instantly

62. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit62
The service worker “hijacks” the click
if (request = navigate) {
if (requested page is cached) {
serve cached PWA version
} else {
fetch, serve and cache PWA version
}
} else {
…
}

63. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit63
PWA + AMP = PWAMP
The AMP framework is
not compatible with (all)
JavaScript frameworks
(e.g. pushState)

64. Max Prin @maxxeight | MnSearch Summit 2018 #mnsummit64
PWAMP examples and resources
https://pwamp.shop https://www.howpwampworks.com (by @aleyda)

65. Thank you!