Mobile SEO

The Definitive Guide

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2 / 76 Share

This new guide will show you

everything you need to know about
mobile SEO.

First, I’ll show you why mobile

optimization is more important than
ever.

Then, I’ll help you get your website

ready for Google’s mobile-first index.

Sound good? Let’s dive right in…

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 Contents

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3

Mobile Optimization How to Implement a Mobile How to Mobile
101 Website That Ranks in Google Optimize Your Site

CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5
How to Optimize Your Advanced Mobile SEO Tips
Mobile Site for UX Signals and Best Practices
 Chapter 1

Mobile Optimization 101

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In this chapter I’ll help you get the

basics down.

So if you’re not sure if your site is

mobile optimized, this chapter will get
you on the right track.

Then, in later chapters, I’ll show you

a bunch of advanced strategies and
techniques.

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6 / 76
What Is Mobile SEO? Share

Mobile SEO is the practice of optimizing your website for users

on smartphones and tablets. Mobile optimization also includes
making your site resources accessible to search engine spiders.

Why Is Mobile SEO Important?

In short: the number of mobile searches is EXPLODING.

In fact, 58% of all searches in Google are now done from a mobile
device.

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7 / 76 And this trend is growing fast. According to Google, there are 27.8 Share
billion more queries performed on mobile than desktop.

Needless to say, mobile is the future of search. And that’s

probably why Google is overhauling their entire algorithm to
focus on mobile search.

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Is “SEO” Now About Optimizing for Share

“Mobile SEO”?

Pretty much, yeah. At least if you’re optimizing your site for

Google.

Today, 95% of all mobile searches are done on Google.

And for Google to retain this insane level of dominance, they’re

going to tweak their algorithm so that it’s optimized for mobile
users FIRST.
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9 / 76 In fact, they already have… Share

First, Google rolled out its Mobile-Friendly Update (which many

people called “Mobilegeddon”).

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This update penalized sites that weren’t mobile-friendly (for

searches performed on smartphones).

But if your target audience doesn’t search that much from their
phone, this update wasn’t a big deal.

That is, until Google made EVERY search a mobile search. How?
By making their entire algorithm “Mobile-First”.

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What Is Google’s Mobile-First Index? Share

Google’s Mobile-first Index ranks the search results based only on

the mobile-version of the page. And yes, this occurs even if
you’re searching from a desktop.

Before this update, Google’s index would use a mix of desktop

and mobile results.

So if someone searched from an iPhone, Google would show

them mobile results. And if someone searched for something on a
desktop, they’d get “desktop results”.

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12 / 76 Today, no matter what device you use, Google shows you results Share
from their mobile index.

I’ll have A LOT more on making sure your site is optimized for
mobile SEO in chapters 3, 4 and 5.

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Is Google’s Mobile-First Index a Big Share

Deal?

It depends.

If your site is already perfectly optimized for mobile, you should

be good.

So if your site…

• Loads resources across all devices

• Doesn’t hide content on mobile versions of your site
• Loads quickly like mobile users expect
• Has working internal links and redirects
• Boasts a UX that’s optimized for any device that your
visitors use

Then yeah, you’re good.

If not, you may notice a rankings drop as Google rolls this out.

That’s why the rest of this guide is dedicated to helping you

optimize your site for mobile.

But first…

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What Does Google Consider “Mobile”? Share

To most people, a “Mobile device” means a smartphone or tablet.

However, Google puts tablets “in their own class” and states:
“when we speak of mobile devices, we generally do not include
tablets in the definition”.

In other words, according to Google: mobile=smartphones.

Honestly, this shouldn’t impact your mobile SEO all that much.

The main idea here is to optimize your site for ANY device. This
includes phones, tablet… or anything else that Elon Musk invents
in the future.

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 Chapter 2

How to Implement a Mobile

Website That Ranks in Google

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To succeed with mobile SEO today,

your site needs to at least work on
mobile devices.

So if mobile visitors get hit with a mini

version of your desktop site, you’re in
trouble.

Fortunately, implementing a mobile

website isn’t hard or complicated.

And in this chapter I’m going to lay

out a few different ways that you can
implement a mobile version of your
website (with a focus on SEO for
mobile).
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When It Comes to Mobile, You’ve Got 3 Share

Options

#1: First, you’ve got Separate URLs (this is also known

as an “M.” configuration).

With this setup, you have the “main” desktop version of your site.
You also have a mobile version (“M.”) version of your site.

In other words, your site figures out what device your visitor is
using… and then directs them to a URL optimized for that device.

Separate URLs were popular back in the day. Today? Not so much.

Why? First, they’re a huge pain to manage. BACKLINKO.COM

18 / 76 Also, “M.” sites have a host of SEO issues (like the fact that you Share
need multiple URLs for every piece of content on your site AND
that it requires complicated “rel=canonical” and “rel=alternate”
tags).

In short, I DON’T recommend a separate URLs/”M.” configuration.

It’s by far the worst way to configure your site for mobile SEO.

#2: Next up, we have Dynamic Serving.

When you serve content dynamically, all of your content is on

the same URL. But you show each user different HTML/CSS
depending on the device they’re using.

For example, if you visit https://backlinko.com/seo-tools on a

desktop, you’d get served a pre-made desktop version of the site: BACKLINKO.COM
19 / 76 Share

But if you visit the page from your iPhone 8, you’d still be on
https://backlinko.com/seo-tools, but would get shown the “iPhone
8” version of the page:

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20 / 76 Share

Dynamic serving is definitely better for SEO than having an “M.”

version of your site. But it has issues.

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21 / 76 For example, dynamic serving sites are notorious for showing Share
desktop versions to mobile users. You also need to constantly
create different versions of your content for new devices that
come out. If you don’t, your site may not recognize a new device…
and show them a version that looks terrible on that device.

In short, I DON’T recommend serving dynamic versions of your

pages to mobile visitors. Instead, I recommend…

#3: Finally, we have Responsive Design.

I saved the best for last. With Responsive Design, your page’s
layout and content responds to each individual user.

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22 / 76 The best part? Responsive design pulls this off without separate Share
URLs or different HTML for each device.

In terms of being SEO-friendly, Responsive Design blows all other

options out of the water.

Why? In short:

• All of your content is on a single URL (good for sharing and

getting links)
• Minimal SEO headaches (no “rel=canonical tags”, duplicate
content issues etc.)
• Insanely user friendly (UX is a big part of SEO thanks to
RankBrain)
• No redirects (which cause technical SEO issues and can slow
down your site)

And if you’re still not convinced, Google recommends responsive

layouts. So there.

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 Chapter 3

How to Mobile Optimize Your Site

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Now that your site is setup for mobile

visitors, it’s time to get your mobile
SEO in order.

In this chapter I’ll show you how to

ensure that Google and other search
engines consider your site optimized
for mobile.

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Use Google’s Mobile Usability Test Share

This nifty tool found in the Google Search Console lets you know
if your site has any mobile usability issues.

To use it, head over to your GSC account. Then click on

“Mobile Usability”.

(This is in the sidebar of the new GSC)

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26 / 76 And Google will let you know if mobile users have trouble using Share
your site.

(For example, the tool may letcha know that you use Flash or that
your font is too small for mobile users to read).

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27 / 76 You can also use Google’s Mobile-Friendly test. Share

Just pop your URL into the tool…

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28 / 76 …and get a full report. Share

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29 / 76 As you can see, I passed. But the tool let me know that mobile Share
Googlebot had trouble loading all of the resources on my page:

Desktop Googlebot had no issue crawling these resources. But the

mobile version couldn’t do it.

And with Google’s Mobile-first index now live, this is a potentially

serious issue. And it’s something I wouldn’t have known about
without this tool.

Super duper helpful.

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Let Google Crawl Everything Share

Do you block Googlebot from accessing Javascript, CSS or other

important parts of your site’s code?

This used to be no big deal. But today, this is a VERY bad idea.

Unless Google can fully crawl your page, they can’t tell it’s mobile-
friendly or not. And if they’re not sure it’s mobile-friendly, good
luck ranking in the Mobile-first index.

How do you know if this is an issue?

First, check out your robots.txt file. This tells Googlebot to not
crawl or index certain parts of your site. This file is usually found
at site.com/robots.txt. You can also see it inside of the Google
Search Console.

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31 / 76 While you’re there, click on “Google Index” —> “Blocked Share
Resources”. This will let you know if you’re blocking Googlebot
from crawling certain parts of your site.

If you’re not blocking anything important, you’re set.

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Put the Kibosh on Interstitial Popups Share

I know: everyone HATES popups.

I’m not going to get into that debate here. But I WILL tell you that
Google also hates popups… especially for mobile users.

Remember: Google’s #1 job is to show their users amazing

content. And if that content is hidden behind a giant popup? It’s
not all that amazing anymore.

In fact, Google rolled out an update that specifically targets

“Intrusive” popups.

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 So if you use a giant popup on your site, this could seriously
33 / 76 Share
impact your rankings.

How do you know which popups are OK?

Google gives a few examples of acceptable popups…

…and popups that can get your site penalized.

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How Does Your Responsive Site Actually Share

Look? Check Out This Cool Tool

It’s one thing to see how Google views your mobile site. But
nothing beats actually seeing your site on different devices.

So if you use responsive design on your site, I recommend

checking out this free tool.

It’ll show you how your site looks on iPhones, tablets and more:

As it turns out, I look just as handsome on a phone as I do on a

tablet. I love this tool! BACKLINKO.COM
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Use The Mobile Version of “Fetch as Share

Google”

Like most people, I’m a visual learner.

Sure, it’s nice to see a laundry list of potential Mobile optimization

issues.

But personally, it’s much more helpful to actually SEE how Google
sees my page.

That’s why I recommend spot testing a few pages on your site

using the Google Search Console’s “Fetch as Google” feature.

Just enter a URL of a popular page from your site into it:

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36 / 76 (Make sure to choose “Mobile” from the dropdown box) Share

And they’ll show you exactly what the Googlebot saw. You can
even scroll down to see if Google missed anything (like images,
videos, menus etc.). Very helpful.

Very helpful. BACKLINKO.COM

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Let Mobile Users See It All Share

Back in the day, people would block certain resources from mobile
users.

(For example, they might hide some content…or block javascript

from loading)

These people weren’t doing anything shady. Blocking these

resources helped their page load faster on mobile devices. And it
sometimes improved the mobile experience.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

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38 / 76 See how you need to hit “Read More” to see all of the content? Share
This might be a problem with Google’s Mobile-first index.

Why?

With Mobile-first, Google considers your page’s mobile version the

“main” version.

And if your content is hidden to mobile users, they may not index
or crawl that content. Or they may weigh it differently.

In the past, when it came to hiding content for desktop users,

Google has said that:

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39 / 76 But then Google’s John Mueller recently said that, for the Mobile- Share
first index:

He also said that, when it comes to Mobile-first:

Huh?

I’m going to wait for an official announcement on the Google blog

before making a final say on this.

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40 / 76 Share

In the meantime, here’s my take:

If you block or hide content from

mobile users, Google will ignore that
content or put less weight on it.

Bottom line? Use your site on a few

different phones. If desktop users
see something mobile users don’t, I
recommend getting that fixed ASAP.

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 Chapter 4

How to Optimize Your Mobile Site

for UX Signals

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42 / 76 Share

As you know, SEO today is less about

messing around with meta tags and
more about having an awesome site.

In fact, Google’s RankBrain algorithm

is specifically designed to see how
Google searchers interact with your
site.

If RankBrain thinks your site is

frustrating their mobile users, they’ll
drop you like a stone.

And in this chapter I’ll show you some

simple ways you can ensure that mobile
users love your site.
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43 / 76
Master Mobile Sitespeed Share

Does Google care how fast your mobile site loads?

Heck yes!

In fact, they recommend that your site loads in under a second for
mobile users.

That’s insanely hard to pull off. Fortunately, there are some free tools
out there that can help you reach Google’s ambitious guideline.

First up, we have Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. This tool lets
you know how quickly your site loads on Mobile…and gives you
some recommendations that you can implement to speed things up.

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44 / 76 I also recommend checking out WebPageTest.org. By default, Share
the tool will load your site on a desktop browser. So make sure to
choose a mobile browser from the menu:

And you’ll get a list of suggestions specifically adapted for mobile

browsers:

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45 / 76 And if you want to get real geeky with pagespeed, check out this Share
excellent resource from Big G.

This guide will help you tweak the nuts and bolts of your site so it
loads lightning-fast.

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Make Your Content Insanely Easy to Share

Read on Phones

Do users have to pinch, scroll or squint to read your mobile

content?

Then they’re going to hit their “back” button like there’s no

tomorrow.

For example, you don’t want your content to look like this:

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47 / 76 Yes, this page is technically optimized for mobile. But it’s hard as Share
heck to read.

Instead, you want your font to be big, bold and legible, like this:

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48 / 76 Share
So:

How can you make your mobile content more readable?

• Use at least 14px font (I prefer 15 or 16)

• Use short paragraphs (1-2 lines per paragraph)
• Go with a line length between 50-60 characters
• Make sure there’s tons of contrast between text and
background (people use phones outside, which can make low-
contrast text harder to read)

It also helps if your content is actually good. But that’s another

story.

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Use HTML5 For Video and Animated Share

Content
Do you embed videos in your content? Or does your page
perform all sorts of fancy animations when people visit?

Well, if that content is coded in Flash, it’s not gonna work on

mobile devices.

Instead, you want to code that up in HTML5.

Don’t Forget the “Viewport Content”

Tag
Do you use responsive design? If so, don’t forget the viewport
meta tag.

This tag changes the size of your page based on the user’s device.

And Google recommends that you setup your viewport meta tag
like this:

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50 / 76 If you forget this tag, or if it’s not configured correctly, your site Share
could look funky to mobile users.

So yeah, a friendly reminder to double check that you have this

set up.

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Implement These 3 Quick Mobile UX Hacks Share

These are three quick tips designed specifically to boost your

site’s usability for mobile Google searchers.

#1: Make Header Images Really Small

Mobile Google users want their answer NOW. Which means you
don’t want to use giant header images, like this:

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52 / 76 Instead, either delete them or make them smaller for mobile Share
visitors, like this:

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53 / 76 #2: Use Lots of “Negative” Space Share

Negative space is the space between text, buttons and design

elements. And negative space is REALLY important for mobile
sites.

On a desktop, you can get away with a cluttered page. But on a

phone, a cluttered page is IMPOSSIBLE to use.

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54 / 76 This is especially important for content that you want to rank in Share
Google. If a Google searcher has trouble reading your content or
finding what they need, they’ll bounce back to the search results.

And using lots of negative space, like this, is one simple way to
improve your site’s dwell time and bounce rate:

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55 / 76 #3: Put Social Share Buttons as a Tab Bar Share

The fact is: social sharing buttons can SIGNIFICANTLY increase

the amount of shares your content receives.

That said, social share buttons work best when they’re in the
sidebar, like this:

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56 / 76 That way, they’re not distracting. But if someone wants to share — Share
boom! — the buttons are right there.

Problem is: this setup isn’t possible on mobile.

That’s why I recommend using a tool like Sumo, which displays

social icons as a tab bar at the bottom of the page. Simple.

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 Chapter 5

Advanced Mobile SEO Tips and

Best Practices

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58 / 76 Share

Now that your site is mobile optimized, it’s time

to take things to the next level.

In the last chapter of this guide we’re going to

blast through a handful of advanced mobile SEO
tips, strategies and best practices.

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Fix Your Mobile CTR, Get More Traffic Share

I probably don’t need to tell you that your organic click-through-

rate is a HUGE Google ranking factor.

And if Google sees that mobile users don’t click on your result,
they’re going to downrank you.

But how do you know if your CTR is up to snuff? Here’s the exact
process:

First, head over to the Google Search Console’s Performance

Report.

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60 / 76 Next, click “+ New”. Share

Click “Device”

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61 / 76 And hit “Compare” to compare desktop vs. mobile: Share

Finally, take a look at how your desktop and mobile CTR size up.

But if you notice that your desktop CTR crushes your mobile CTR
for a certain keyword, search for that keyword in Google (on your
phone).

It could be that your title tag is getting cut off (more on that
later). Or it could be that the mobile SERPs have features (like
more ads) that are crowding out the organic results.

Either way, you’ll usually come away with an insight that you can
use to bump up your mobile CTR. BACKLINKO.COM
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Turn Mobile Donkeys Into Unicorns Share

Google’s Mobile-first index means that Google will start to put

more weight on mobile UX signals. In other words, if mobile
searchers bounce from your site like crazy, that’s going to put a
damper on your rankings.

That’s why I recommend comparing your Desktop vs. Mobile

bounce rate and dwell time in Google Analytics. It’s actually super
easy and well worth the effort.

To do it, login to your Google Analytics account. And hit “Site

Content”–>”Landing Pages”.

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63 / 76 This will show you the most popular pages on your site. Click on a Share
page that you want to get more traffic to.

Then click “Secondary Dimension”–> “Device Category”.

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64 / 76 This’ll show you how your UX signals compare on desktop vs. Share
mobile.

For example, for this page, my bounce rate and dwell time are
almost identical. So this page is probably optimized well for
mobile users.

But if GA tells you that there’s a big difference between desktop

and mobile visitors, visit that page on your phone.

You’ll probably notice something funky that’s causing mobile

users to spend less time on your page.

Then, when you’re done, move onto our next tip.

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Boost Your Mobile Page Speed With Share

These 3 Tips

Like anything with Google’s Mobile-first update, Google will now

look at your site’s mobile page speed. Will your desktop site
speed still matter? Maybe.

But it’s definitely not going to be as important as how your site

loads on mobile devices.

Here’s how to add some rocket fuel to your site’s mobile loading
speed.

First, do a mobile speed test at ThinkWithGoogle.com:

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This test is similar to any other site speed testing tool, except that
it zeroes-in on mobile loading speed. It even loads your site in 3G
to simulate a mobile environment.

And you get a helpful report that tells you how long it takes for
your site to load on a mobile device…

…and shows you how to remove load speed roadblocks:

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67 / 76 Share

Here are some other quick tips to try out:

• Squish your images: If you use WordPress, I recommend

installing an image optimizer, like Smush Image Compression.
These SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the file size of your images,
which can speed up load times dramatically.
• Implement Browser Cache: Google themselves recommend
caching your site to make your site load faster.
• Fire Up a CDN: CDNs can make page elements (especially
images) load 2-3x faster. BACKLINKO.COM
68 / 76
Optimize Title and Description Tags Share

for Mobile SERPs

Do you get the vast majority of your organic traffic from mobile?

Then you may want to optimize your title and description tags
specifically for the mobile search results.

Here’s how:

Believe it or not, but Google actually gives you MORE title tag
characters to work with on mobile.

Here’s the exact breakdown:

Desktop
Title: Approximately 70 Characters
Description: Approximately 155 Characters

Mobile
Title: Approximately 78 Characters
Description: Approximately 155 Characters

In other words, if your title tag is 69 or fewer characters, your title

won’t get cut off on desktop or on mobile.
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69 / 76 But let’s say you get lots of mobile traffic. Well, you may want Share
to expand your title tag and take advantage of that extra room…
even if it pushes you over the desktop character limit.

For example, let’s say your title tag looks like this:

That’s 66 characters. So this title will display in-full on desktop

and mobile.

But let’s say you wanted to use a word or phrase that’ll bump up
your CTR. Your title tag would now look like this:

That’s 78 characters.

Yes, 78 characters means that Google will truncate your title tag
on desktop searches. But it’ll show up just fine on mobile.

But if desktop only makes up a small chunk of your traffic? It may

be worth it for the CTR bump you’ll receive with a longer title tag
on mobile. BACKLINKO.COM
70 / 76
Should You Implement AMP? Share

Accelerated Mobile Pages are stripped-down versions of

webpages designed to load quickly on mobile devices. In fact,
AMP pages load about 4x faster than their non-AMP counterparts.

As you may know, Google has led the charge on AMP.

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71 / 76 And because AMP is a Google project, lots of SEOs rushed to Share
implement AMP for their clients’ sites.

(The assumption is that Google will reward AMP-friendly sites with

higher rankings).

Higher rankings aside… Google also shows a little icon next to your
result in the search results that may boost your CTR:

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72 / 76 With all that, the question is: Share

Does it make sense to use AMP?

The choice is yours, of course. But my take is: probably not.

Here’s why:

First, AMP puts SERIOUS limits on your page’s functionality.

Want full control of your ads? Not happening.

How about a lightbox or popup? Nope.

Well, you can at least brand your site however you want, right?
Not so fast. AMP puts significant restrictions on CSS. This helps
your site load faster… but makes your content look generic.

Second, AMP can hurt your link building efforts.

When someone links to your content, those links point directly to

your site. Obvious, I know.

But here’s the deal:

When someone links to your AMP pages, that link points to the
Google.com domain.

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73 / 76 Share

In other words, AMP can cost you in the link department. So

at least for now, links to AMP pages boost Google’s domain
authority… not yours.

Finally, AMP may not last.

LTE is already SUPER fast. And 5G is just around the corner.

So the idea of jumping through a thousand hoops for a tiny

increase in mobile loading speed makes little sense today… and
will make even less sense moving forward.

Bottom line? Unless you have a compelling reason to do so, I don’t

recommend AMP for most publishers. BACKLINKO.COM
74 / 76
Use Schema Structured Data To Stand Share

Out in Mobile SERPs

As you probably know, mobile SERPs display the search results as

cards:

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75 / 76 And these cards make Schema.org structured data super Share
effective.

Why?

Well, structured data can hook you up with review stars,

recipe images and event dates in the SERPs… all of which can
significantly increase your organic CTR.

For example, look at how much the Downshiftology mobile result

stands out from ToddyCafe.com. This contrast isn’t nearly as
powerful on desktop:

Bottom line? If you want more clicks from mobile Google

searchers, consider implementing structured data.
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