The Death of the Desktop: The Future For Mobile SEO

The Death of the Desktop:
The Future For Mobile SEO
By Regan McGregor

Death of the Desktop:
Future For Mobile SEO
What’s happened in
the past.
Why Mobile? What’s coming
in the future.

Categories like Home & Garden
are seeing a +45% growth in
mobile search year on year.
The Stats
Google reports that:
In 2016 nearly 4 in 10 users
searched using only their
smartphones in an average day.
Device usage in an average day:
80% use a smartphone,
67% use a computer &
16% use a tablet.

Indexing for Mobile
Mobile Subdomain Vary HTTP Header
(Dynamic serving)
Responsive Design Application Indexing Accelerated Mobile
Pages (AMP)

2014 - Now
Google’s Mobile Updates

• 25th June 2014
• Key capabilities:
• Search results
• Installs
• Autocompletions
• Assistant
• Ad targeting
• Deep links: Provide a uniform resource
identifier (URI) that links to a specific location
within and app.
• Universal links: Take a normal HTTP or HTTPS
URL and open it within an app on mobile
devices.
App Indexing

1. Support HTTP deep links in your mobile app.
2. Implement Google App Indexing using the App
Indexing API for Android, or by integrating the App
Indexing SDK for iOS 9.
3. Explicitly map your web pages to their corresponding
app screens using either a rel=alternate link element
on the individual page, by referencing the app URLs in
your XML sitemaps, or by using schema.org markup.
App Indexing –
The implementation

How to reference
your app links

<html>
<head>
...
<link rel="alternate" href="android-app://com.gizmos.android/http/gizmos.com/example" />
<link rel="alternate" href="ios-app://123456/http/gizmos/example" />
…
</head>
<body> … </body>
To add an app link reference to an individual page, you can use an HTML <link>
element in the <head> of the page.
Option 1: Link rel=alternate element

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<url>
<loc>http://gizmos.com/example</loc>
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" href="ios-app://123456/http/gizmos/example" />
<xhtml:link rel="alternate" href="android-app://com.gizmos.android/http/gizmos.com/example" />
</url>
...
</urlset>
Instead of marking up individual pages, you can use an <xhtml:link> element in
your XML sitemap, inside the <url> element specifying the relevant webpage.
Option 3: Add app deep links to XML sitemap

• 21st April, 2015
• Website’s that pass the Google Mobile-friendly test
are given a boost in ranking in Google mobile
search results
• Google provided a tool to test the mobile friendly
conditions
• The Mobile-Friendly Test tool can identify the
following usability errors:
• Flash usage
• Viewport not configured
• Fixed-width viewport
• Content not sized to viewport
• Small font size
• Touch elements too close
Google Mobile -
Friendly Update

• 24th February 2016
• Google and Twitter backed
• Web pages published in the AMP open-source
format load near instantly, giving users a
smooth, more engaging experience on mobile.
• At its core, AMP consists of three layers:
• AMP HTML
• AMP JavaScript library
• AMP Cache
Accelerated Mobile
Pages (AMP)

• Facebook Instant Articles SDK
Extension now Supports Google AMP
• Over 2 billion AMP pages covering some
900,000 domains (Google I/O 2017)
• AMP icon on search listings
• Top stories (AMP) Carousel
Why AMP

23% increase in
mobile search users
who return within 7
days
Case Studies
44% increase in
monthly unique
visitors and a 73%
increase in visits per
monthly unique
visitor
80% of Gizmodo’s
traffic from AMP
pages is new traffic,
50% increase in
impressions
25% increase in click
through rates from
search results, with
CTR on ads in AMP
stories up by 63%.
After converting over 2.5
million AMP pages for
publishers like The Daily
Dot, Hearst Television
and The Miami Herald
says mobile users who
start with an AMP article
spend 10% more time
than those who land on
regular mobile pages.

• 10th January 2017
• Google will no longer consider pages with intrusive
interstitials as being mobile-friendly.
• Bottom line: Obstructing content on mobile with ads
or other popups is against Google’s guidelines.
• Google will be potentially penalizing — i.e., lowering
the rankings — of these web pages.
• Google said “pages where content is not easily
accessible to a user on the transition from the
mobile search results may not rank as highly.”
Intrusive Interstitial
Penalty

What is an Intrusive Interstitial?
An example of an
intrusive popup
An example of an
intrusive standalone
interstitial
Another example of
an intrusive standalone
interstitial
An example of an
interstitial for
cookie usage
An example of an
interstitial for age
verification
An example of a
banner that uses a
reasonable amount of
screen space
Examples of interstitials that would not be affected
by the new signal, if used responsibly
Examples of interstitials that make
content less accessible

• Coming 2018
• At SMX East, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary
Illyes told the audience the mobile-first index has
started to slowly roll out, at least for a “few sites”.
• Websites will be indexed based on there mobile
content rather than the desktop version of the site
• No affect to website with no mobile site.
Mobile-first Index

• Google’s preferred method of
web design
• Minimal affect by the mobile-
first index
• Issues can caused by adaptive
hiding important content on
mobile devices
• Think about the journey a user
might take on different devices.
Separate Mobile and
Desktop Site
• At huge risk of drop in
indexation and loss of
desktop based rankings
• Every page needs to exist on
mobile and desktop
• Content on mobile will be
used to rank in search results
What about my site?
Responsive
Websites

Option 1: Get a Responsive Website
1. Configure 301 redirects from the old mobile URLs to
point to the new responsive pages.
2. Remove any mobile site configuration such as Vary
HTTP header or device/user agent redirects.
3. Remove your rel=”alternate” tags.
4. Remove mobile alternate references in your
sitemap.
5. Setup each page’s rel=”canonical” so they are
pointing to themselves.
How to get ready for the Mobile-first Index?

Option 2: Fix Your Separate Mobile Site
1. Offer the Same Content
2. Make Sure Your Mobile Site Is Mobile Friendly
3. Structured Markup on Mobile and Desktop
4. Check Your NoIndex Tag
5. Improve Page Speed
6. Setup Your Mobile Site in Search Console
How to get ready for the Mobile-first Index?

• 1st February 2018
• The policy requires that the AMP page content be
comparable to the (original) canonical page
content. AMP is not a ranking signal and there is
no change in terms of the ranking policy with
respect to AMP.
• In a small number of cases, AMP pages are used
as teaser pages which create a particularly bad
user experience since they only contain minimal
content.
AMP bait & switch:
Update

• Beta
• Product pages
• Product Category Page
• Personalisation and Login
• Checkout flow and Payments
• Analytics
AMP for eCommerce

Wego.com - increases
mobile conversion rates
95% with AMP
Case Studies
WompMobile - 105%
conversion rate increase
on amp pages
Milestone – 83% increase
in mobile transactions
Greenweez – 80% conversion
rate increase on mobile

Progressive Web
Apps (PWAs)
• Worthy of being on the home screen
• Work reliably, no matter the network
conditions
• Increased engagement
• Improved conversions

Combine AMP with
Progressive Web Apps
AMPbyExample, for instance, is both an AMP and a
Progressive Web App:
1. It has a Web App Manifest, prompting the “Add to
Homescreen” banner.
2. It has a Service Worker and, therefore, allows offline
access, among other things.

• Dramatic rise in digital assistants
• A Quarter or More of Bing Searches are
Voice-Based
• Bing Powers More Voice Technology
than Google Does
• Virtual Assistant Technology Still Has
Some Improving to Do
Voice Search

• Claim your Google My Business listing
• Conversational keywords
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages
• Own The “Featured” Snippet
• Structured data markup
How? Voice Search

• If you're not on mobile you're losing visitors.
• Get your app indexed.
• Check your website is mobile-friendly.
• Consider Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
• Remove intrusive interstitials!
• Prepare for the mobile-first index.
• Don’t bait and switch on AMP.
• Consider Progressive Web Apps (PWAs).
• Get ready for voice search.
Key Takeaways

How to reach me
@reganmcgregor
Regan McGregor
@reganmcgregorau
@4mationSydney
4mation Technologies
@4mationSydney
www.4mation.com.au

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