You decided to do an SEO audit to identify the operational problems of your website? That’s a very good initiative if you want your SEO strategy to perform. But don’t forget to check that your site is responsive.
Today, internet users browse a lot on their smartphones and no SEO audit would be complete without an analysis of your site's mobile compatibility.
Here are the 7 points to watch in your mobile SEO audit to ensure a site optimized for all screens!
What is a mobile SEO audit?
To understand the importance of this analysis, a brief definition of SEO is necessary…
Definition of SEO
People tend to think of semantics and keywords when talking about SEO, yet optimization also involves technical SEO criteria.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves optimizing a website to improve its ranking on search engines and be visible to your target audience.
Natural search optimization is therefore very technical because you must satisfy both users and the algorithms of Google, Bing, Yahoo… For reference, there are more than 500 SEO criteria and Google has the annoying habit of making regular updates, which makes the task even more complicated!
Next, you must distinguish between on-site SEO and off-site SEO.
On-site SEO practice is divided into two main areas:
- Content: that is to say text, images, videos… These criteria are mainly based on semantics, the quality and relevance of the information, content markup, meta descriptions, etc.
- Technical: this refers to site ergonomics, design, loading time, internal linking, absence of errors 404, 301, 302, etc., URL structure, and its adaptation to all screen resolutions…
As for off-site SEO, it refers to your reputation outside the site (backlinks, social networks, off-site content…).
The importance of the mobile SEO audit
Today nearly 60% of searches are performed on mobile. Google has therefore developed specific algorithms and created the Mobile-First Index and now prioritizes (regardless of the device used) results from the mobile index. In other words, if your site is not optimized for mobile, you will be penalized!
Why optimize your site for mobile?
Since 2016, Google has emphasized the Mobile First Index. This change in SEO strategy now gives a strong advantage to sites that have a mobile-optimized version, even over sites optimized for traditional desktops. The algorithm therefore works from your site's mobile version in order to evaluate it against various criteria related to that version.
Poor mobile optimization will therefore result in a significant SEO penalty that cannot be compensated for by optimization on other devices.
This decision was made after mobile surpassed 50% of total searches worldwide. This rapid growth in smartphone usage led Google to logically adapt by prioritizing the mobile version. Google now maintains two crawling tools: one dedicated to desktops and one dedicated to mobile devices.
Both algorithms rely on the average performance of a device to assess whether a given site performs well on mobile or desktop.
How to create a mobile-friendly website?
To build a mobile-performing website, it’s important to follow several rules. First, avoid differentiating content between the desktop and mobile versions. Different content can harm your site's SEO.
Also remember to include a robots.txt file that allows mobile crawling by Google's algorithms. Finally, do not use cloaking. This technique—adding ultra-optimized content that may not make sense and then hiding it (for example, white text on a white background so only algorithms can read it)—is now easily detected by Google, which will penalize sites with hidden content.
The 7 points to cover in your mobile SEO audit
Your mobile SEO audit will focus on the internal parts of your website, particularly its technical aspects. It’s therefore essential to monitor these points and act promptly at the first sign of a problem.
1. Check your page size on mobile
Although mobile devices are increasingly powerful, they usually cannot load as quickly as desktops except for high-end models. Algorithms are strict about this and will be particularly demanding on performance, which will likely be your main constraint.
Text that is too heavy and not responsive can quickly become hard to read. Likewise, a page that takes too long to load will prevent the user from getting the information or service they seek, which in turn hurts your SEO.
2. Image optimization
Your images must resize automatically and quickly. Check the weight and dimensions of your mobile images, because these are often the elements that significantly slow load times.
Keep in mind that a mobile display does not need as high a resolution as a desktop display; most users won’t notice the difference and will prefer performance over image quality.
3. The use of video
Does it open automatically? Is its size adapted to the mobile screen? If you add a video, it must be responsive and must not block the loading of the rest of the page. It’s normal for a video to take a little longer to appear, but the reader should still be able to browse the rest of the content during those few seconds of loading.
4. Clickable links
Test all your clickable links: are CTAs, buttons, and links easy to tap? Are they visible enough to be found easily? Your mobile site can shift or make links impossible to tap due to their size or proximity. Well-optimized clickable links will improve your performance, SEO, and search rankings.
5. Mobile navigation
Is your menu visible and accessible? Is navigation as good on mobile as on desktop? Menus are often changed for mobile. On desktop the menu is spread out and you can click the section you want directly. On mobile the menu often takes up too much space, making it impractical to use.
Prefer a hamburger-style menu so users can switch from one category to another easily without harming the user experience. Google’s algorithms are very sensitive to this practice, which can earn you a few points on your mobile SEO test.
6. AMP validation
The AMP format is an ultra-light HTML code that helps improve your pages’ loading speed and keep them in Google’s cache. Check their validity at validator.ampproject.org.
Once your page is cached, it will load much faster and you will no longer encounter performance-related issues. A real time-saver that can boost your mobile SEO test score.
7. Errors related to Search Console
Finally, remember to visit your Search Console regularly to track any errors. Sometimes errors mean nothing, other times they can add precious seconds to load times, especially if you include many extensions on your website. Content libraries are often to blame, so it’s essential to optimize them to avoid forcing users to load overly heavy content.
Errors can also be closely related to a link or the quality of the code, which will slow down your site’s efficiency and performance. On mobile, when you run an SEO test, you’ll also find a list of errors with their impact on your site’s performance. Prioritize errors that strongly affect your ranking, then fix minor errors afterward.
Essential tools for your SEO audit
For a meaningful SEO analysis, it’s best to use several tools and compare their results.
Among the mobile evaluation tools, we recommend:
- Google Mobile Test
- Lighthouse
- AMP Validator
And to monitor your performance:
- GTMetrix
- Uptrends
- PageSpeed
Spotted significant errors? Act quickly to avoid penalties and losing positions on the SERPs and your audience!
Our recommendation
Mobile SEO auditing requires substantial analysis work, but it’s essential to grow your business, whatever your industry. Don’t forget that in SEO, content is still king and no marketing strategy is effective without quality content. Order your texts now from our professional web copywriters !
