Mobile search ranking- A different ball game than the usual Pageranks!
The Google web mobile web search cannot employ the usual Pageranks to assess its search results. Here are the reasons that corroborate the previous statement:
- The mobile users do not link to the mobile content. So, as obvious as it is, the link graph isn’t created by people in the same context of ‘mobile search’ as the people browsing the link graph. It doesn’t seem to be an intelligent option to let the PC’s user judge what the mobile users will view in their search results.
- The usage of mobile in itself is not same as that of PC. When mobile, people are usually looking out for a different kind of resource than on desktop or laptop. Further, many mobile devices aren’t quite compatible with the same dimensions as that of a laptop and desktop. Web designs may go weary and images may look skewed too!
- People using the mobile search are less likely to follow links on the web and thus, the link graph doesn’t hold as much grounds in this context.
- Further, as a known blogger pointed out- location and time play such a pivotal role in the mobile searches and links till far show no much of a relevance to these two important factors.
With the reasons stated, it is more than obvious that the mobile web will need some different algorithms for assessment of the search results and most probably, some different SEO techniques too. As of now, the mobile web is still in its nascent stage and by the time it matures, many SEO folks are of the belief that the mobile algorithm structure will get more and more complex.
Many of the web enthusiasts carried out extensive research on this relatively new topic of mobile search and have come out with some effective tips on how to develop a website that’s good on mobile search:
- The website should be small, lower size and fast loading (as of now one can consider <20kb/page to be the de facto)
- Use UTF-8 character encoding
- Use JPEG/GIF images
- Content or keywords that include ‘mobile’/ ‘cell’/’PDA’ etc
- The usage of the language XHTML mobile 1.0 doctype can be of great help.
- Keyphrase optimization on the website needs to be done in a more ‘mobile centric’ manner. Focus on shorter yet informative content and short yet attractive titles.
- Added to all the above tips are the regular SEO principles (the technical ones!).
Get this straight that links aren’t needed for mobile websites. Yes, as of now you may see the ‘high on links’ website being displayed in search results of mobile. But, gradually it’ll fade away, for there are a whole lot of mobile-oriented websites being developed these days that’ll surely knock them out in a matter of time. Mobile tools too haven’t developed much. On the technical side, one can count on .mobi emulator for testing, but on the marketing forefront things still remain well below average.
