More than 60% of time spent online in the UK is via mobile devices – a trend which looks set to continue in 2019. The global picture is no different, with just over 70% mobile in the USA, and a whopping 91% in Indonesia. So wherever you’re targeting, it makes sense to ensure that you’re creating mobile-friendly content.
There are many technical elements that can help your mobile SEO, such as improving your page load speed with Accelerated Mobile Pages, and ensuring good mobile navigation. However, it’s also important to consider the structure of your content, particularly if the majority of your users already visit your site via a mobile device.
Mobile is particularly important for the healthcare sector, which is second only to food & drinks in terms of the percentage of searches that come from mobile.
Mobile users vs desktop users
Users behave differently when they access content via mobile. Whether at home or out and about, most people multitask around their phones, making it harder than ever to grab and keep their attention. Whether they’re casually browsing or looking for a specific piece of information, they tend to spend less time on any given page.
Conversion rates also tend to be lower on mobile, leading some marketers to undervalue its importance for e-commerce. However, it’s better to think of mobile as the start of your sales funnel. While many people still prefer to make their purchases via desktop, they often do a lot of research and product comparison on their phones first.
Easy ways to make your content mobile-friendly
In order to engage a mobile audience, your content needs to be easily-digestible. The simpler you make things for your audience, the more positive their experience will be, and the more likely you are to see your website traffic grow.
These three simple techniques can help to break your copy up and make it much more readable for modern mobile audiences:
- Shorter paragraphs: on a mobile device, large fonts and long paragraphs can quickly fill the screen with a wall of text that’s off-putting to readers. Aim for a maximum of roughly 60 words per paragraph.
- Bullet points: bulleted lists are an excellent way to convey complex information, lists or sequences in a simple, user-friendly way. They also often feature in Google quick answers (featured snippets – stay tuned for more information on these later this week). Ordered lists and tables have the same benefits.
- h2 to h6 titles / bold text: these are an excellent way to break your copy down into bite-sized chunks and facilitate easy skimming; perfect for today’s fragmented attention spans. Including informative sub-headings also provides you with opportunities to highlight extra keywords.
When in doubt, there’s no substitute for simply testing the mobile experience of your site yourself. It can be easy to get into the habit of proofreading new content solely on desktop, which doesn’t necessarily reflect your users’ experience. Taking time to check how content looks on mobile can go a long way towards helping you find the winning format.
Read part four of our SEO series: How to do keyword research for SEO in 2019
Check out our SEO series from the beginning: Google snippets: what you need to know.
Polly Logan-Banks is a Thrive editor and our resident SEO expert. Any questions? Contact us!