Mobile-First Link Building: Best Practices to Overcome Challenges

📖 Learning
Rinky Moolchandani Apoorva Bajj

Rinky Moolchandani, Apoorva Bajj

— 6 min read
Mobile-First Link Building: Best Practices to Overcome Challenges
Mobile-First Link Building

You have the finest website with top-notch content and well optimized yet not discovered by the huge online audience. In this era of mobile-first indexing, where 65% of queries come from the phone, you need to understand how your link-building practice could up your game!

Most SEOs don't need convincing that links are important. The fact — internal links account for a far larger part of a page's strength than external links do. Another fact — both links drive your position on search results.

It is reasonable to believe that adding a landing page to your top navigation results in more meaningful backlinks. That's exactly how important links are for a website to reach its audience.

Let's learn about link building on desktop and mobile platforms. We'll see why they're different and why this is important. We'll also find out how to overcome challenges without affecting user experience.

Understanding Mobile-First Indexing
Link Building Impact on SEO
Best Practices for Mobile-First Link Building

Challenges in the Mobile-First Link Building Expedition

Takeaway

Understanding Mobile-First Indexing

Have you ever wondered how Google views your website when it appears on a mobile device? Think of Google as an active explorer exploring your site's mobile version. It prioritizes mobile-friendly content as it crawls and indexes. Similar to a well-arranged bookcase with the most appropriate books placed at eye level.

What is Google’s Mobile-First Indexing (Explained)
Google is planning to implement its Mobile-First indexing on all its websites. Lets understand, What Mobile-First Indexing is all about
StartupTalkyAlan Joseph

Google's mobile-first index has changed SEO since 2019, particularly for link-building practices.

Link builders should update their strategies to focus on creating high-quality backlinks. This will improve mobile user experiences and site responsiveness. Google now prioritizes mobile versions of websites for indexing and ranking.

Look at LinkedIn. The website appears prominently in search results for keywords because of its good backlinks and organized data. This leads to faster loading on all devices.

Here is how link building impacts SEO-

  • Improves the position in search engine rankings
  • Backlinks increase the authority and credibility of a website
  • Link building fuels referral traffic to a website
  • Relevant anchor text increases the relevancy of a website for particular keywords
  • It helps in building a reputation and increasing brand awareness
  • It increases the website's organic traffic
  • Backlinks result in rising leads and conversion rates
  • Link building improves a website's SEO performance

Google's mobile-first index requires a website's mobile interface to be user-friendly and responsive for indexing and ranking. Here is how you must consider mobile first-link-building practices to ensure that you are providing enhanced user experiences and site responsiveness.

The key element of navigation is internal links. Consider them as the road signage that guides users across the environment of your digital service. Airbnb includes links in its mobile app so that customers can explore various destinations.

Links from other websites promote your website. Think of them as digital world referrals. Neil Patel's content stands out online because it has high-quality backlinks from reliable sources.

Responsive Website Design

In the era of mobile-first content, creating a responsive website is not a trend, but a need. No matter which device you use, a responsive website, like Amazon's, always gives a consistent user experience. This improves user engagement and increases the efficiency of your link-building practices.

Amazon Website
Amazon Website

Optimize Content for Mobile Users

It takes more than just organizing text onto a tiny screen to provide content for mobile viewers. It all comes down to providing an engaging experience. Consider the Quora mobile website, which captivates readers with each swipe and offers more than just content. It has an easygoing, and scroll-worthy experience.

Effective SEO

The secret sauce for ranking on search engines is optimizing content for SEO. It is about improving your content for both users and search engines. Buzzfeed's mobile content optimization is a masterclass - short, engaging, and purposefully designed to attract the attention of both users and search engine algorithms.

To overcome these obstacles, a thorough mobile-first link-building strategy is required. Consider the specific elements of mobile search and user behavior. Link builders can ensure that their efforts contribute to good SEO and better mobile user experiences by adapting to the mobile-first context.

Inadequate Navigation System

The difficulty of failing navigation elements is akin to exploring without signposts. Many websites' mobile navigation features are not efficient for mobile users. Small buttons, a lot of options, poor placement, and a lack of responsiveness are some common problems.

Solution- To address this, perform a full audit of your mobile site's navigation, ensuring that every part is easily accessible. TED has simplified mobile navigation, making it easy for viewers to find and engage with their content.

Slow Sites Never Win

In the mobile-first era, speed is everything. Users won't put up with a slow website. They bounce back to the other page. This might not concern you in words, but your conversion rate drops at a high speed when this happens.

Solution- Compressing pictures, optimizing browser-cached data, and optimizing code will help to speed up your page. You can use tools like PageSpeed Insights, and Dareboost to check and improve website speed. Consider how Google ensures incredibly fast speed on its mobile site, establishing a benchmark for others to follow.

Website for Various Devices

Creating a mixed device structure itself is a challenge. Make sure your site looks great on a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. Netflix successfully navigates this complication by providing a uniform and visually appealing experience across a wide range of devices.

Solution- The best solution is to opt for a responsive web theme. You can find free templates or create your responsive website on free platforms like BootstrapMade, and Colorlib. Also, ChatGPT if you know how to give the exact prompts.

Mobile-First Content Creation

It might be difficult to create content that appeals to mobile consumers while being relevant. Aim for a good balance of interesting visual and informative content. HubSpot achieves this balance, giving essential data without affecting the user experience.

To create engaging content for mobile users, focus on being concise, using rich imagery, and making it personal. Also, make sure to use mobile-friendly platforms and track performance.

Content Localization for Mobile Users

Because mobile searches frequently contain local intent, it is critical to customize your content to specific regions. TripAdvisor does a good job in this area. It gives recommendations based on where the user is, which makes it more useful and engaging.

Solution- Through the use of a location-based API, you can access the user's location and customize the content according to the region. Try Google Maps Geolocation API. It offers a free version that offers the most - 2500 daily requests.

Mobile-First Indexing

Takeaway

  • Error - Key navigation elements sometimes vanish on mobile devices, frustrating users. (Missing Links and Mega-Menu Chaos)
  • Tip - Instead of eliminating linked widgets, consider shifting them to the bottom of the page

To save screen space, try new ideas like tabs, carousels, and expandable sections

  • Error- Deep linking on mobile devices might be problematic, making it tough to direct users
  • Tip- Instead of crowded mega-menus, use breadcrumbs, contextual links, and internal search functionality for seamless navigation
  • Error- Problem with Navigating the Mobile Linking
  • Tip- Update navigation features and deep linking systems to be mobile-first-friendly

Effective mobile link-building requires updating features rather than deleting them to improve user experience and engagement.

Since you’re armed with the knowledge, it's time to work your link-building game in the mobile-first index era. Share the errors you’re facing while working with mobile-first indexing. Let’s resolve it for you!

FAQs

What is mobile-first indexing?

Google's Mobile-First Indexing is like putting more importance on a website's mobile version when deciding how high it should appear in search results. This is because lots of people use phones to browse the internet. To do well in searches, websites need to make sure their mobile version works well and looks good.

The challenges in mobile-first link-building are Inadequate Navigation Systems, Slow Sites, Websites for Various Devices, Mobile-First Content Creation, and Content Localization for Mobile Users.

How long does it take for Google to index a site?

Google takes as little as 4 days and up to 6 months to crawl or index a site.

Must have tools for startups - Recommended by StartupTalky

Read more