SEO Factors to Watch for Mobile and Local Search

Long gone are the days of being able to easily rank in Google. The market has radically shifted towards mobile search and local search, and each have their own factors that influence optimization of results.

While the market has changed, both mobile and local present great opportunities for those who understand how they both differ from traditional search. There are some simple factors that can assist you in targeting both.

SEO Factors in Mobile

In April 2015 Google implemented what was dubbed “Mobilegeddon,” a process that shifted the goal post by ranking results based on the mobile-friendliness of the site. Sites that are more mobile friendly are ranked higher than sites that may be superior in other more traditional ways but don’t look so great on a mobile device.

Technical factors feature heavily in how Google assesses the mobile friendliness of a site.

Site speed tops the list. Mobile devices usually download content across mobile networks that are not always super quick- hence the need for making sure a site is super quick to load.

Google itself warns that sites that feature unplayable videos (avoid Flash at all costs), and offer a poor search experience can be demoted in rankings, or even displayed with a warning in mobile search results.

SEO Factors in Local

For local search every business should have a Google My Business page, those are the results that appear at the top of Google for any search and also include a link back to your site.

That listing should include all the relevant details for your business (address, contact number, opening hours), as well photos of your business.

For your website the same rules apply with mobile-  it should be quick and user-friendly.

Links in 2016 may be disregarded by some, but studies have shown they do play a strong role with sites targeting a local audience, as does one other more traditional consideration: content. Local sites with rich, in-depth content do better on Google, as particularly small businesses targeting a local audience tend to have content-lite sites.

 

Top SEO Diagnostic Tools For 2016

SEO diagnostic tools come and go, but in 2016 there’s a still a great range of old favorites, and some newer sites that you can be using to check how your site is performing.

  1. Google Webmaster Tools

No list of SEO diagnostic tools is complete without the granddaddy of them all;

Google Webmaster Tools allows you to track your sites overall performance, but includes tools such as Fetch for Google. Fetch allows you to see your site as Google sees it, which is vital when tracking SEO performance.

PageSpeed Insights allows you to measure the performance of your mobile and desktop sites in terms of speed, a particularly important factor given that Google now considers speed as a factor when ranking mobile sites.

  1. Found SEO Tool

Found delivers an automated SEO audit, and provides feedback on technical issues such as domain canonicalization; content issues such as keywords and meta data, and external link analysis.

  1. Varvy SEO Tool

A simple to use SEO auditing tool that delivers information on domain strength, links, image SEO, social counts, mentions, technical SEO, page speed and various other aspects that can be useful in getting a broader picture of your own site, or even that of competitors.

  1. Woorank

This paid service offers a higher level of diagnostics. It takes into account existing SEO initiatives, social media, usability and other aspects of a site.

  1. SEO Report Card

A handy tool in being able to not only diagnose your own site but compare it against your competitors, as well.

The service analyzes rank, link building, accessibility, trust, and indexing.

  1. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

Another comparison tool that is able to crawl multiple websites and look for common SEO issues, useful for both your own websites, and seeing how your competitors are doing it.

Top 5 All-in-one SEO tools for 2016

There’s no shortage of SEO tools on the market, but what are the best ones in 2016? Here’s our list of the top 5 all-in-one SEO tools for 2016.

  1. Hubspot

Hubspot offers an all-in-one tool that includes landing pages and lead capturing forms, lead nurturing/ auto-responders, email marketing, social media updates and monitoring, traditional SEO tools including optimization, and CRM.

It’s SEO tools allow users to get target keywords that get found in search engine results, including keyword suggestions to optimize your website for the best results.

  1. Act-On

Another all-in-one tool that spans outbound and inbound tactics, lead generation and nurturing strategies, and customer life-cycle optimization and advocacy programs.

Act-On’s SEO tools including the ability to audit landing pages and a website itself, as well as general analysis on posts that are pitched as being easy to understand and use, by even non-experts.

  1. Oracle Eloqua

Oracle Eloqua allows markers to plan and execute campaigns, while delivering personalized customer experience for their prospects.

While not offering a dedicated SEO module, Eloqua offers a web marketing module that delivers a continuous, personalized digital experience across channels including optimized pages, and outbound marketing.

  1. Marketo

Billed as the “all in the one place to drive engagement everywhere,” Marketo offers a suite of tools that focuses on digital marketing that allows users to keep customers listening and capturing all their digital activity where ever they are.

Marketo’s recommendation engine crawls your website and automatically identifies your assets, such as videos, e-books, case studies, and blog posts that you can put forward to different types of customers, optimizing conversions along the way.

  1. Ontraport

A multi-channel marketing automation tool set which is designed to follow-up with every lead, customer, and partner inquiry via email, phone calls, direct mail postcards and even SMS.

Ontraport delivers the SEO though its use of optimized templates that are search engine friendly out of the box, and supports them via a metrics dashboard that allows you to track the performance of a site or campaign.