What Is Mobile SEO?
Mobile search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website to rank higher in mobile search results and enhance the user experience for mobile users.
It shares many best practices with desktop SEO and is an essential component of an overall SEO strategy.
Why Is Mobile SEO Important?
Mobile SEO is important because Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning the mobile version of your site is stored in the database that’s eligible for search rankings.
Users also prefer mobile devices over desktop devices for search. In 2025, 62% of global website traffic comes from mobile devices.
And 90% of consumers use smartphones for product research while shopping in a store at least some of the time.
All this means ignoring mobile SEO can mean missed opportunities—even if your business has ample foot traffic.
What’s the Preferred Way to Configure a Website for Mobile?
Google recommends responsive design to configure your website for mobile because it’s easy to implement and maintain.
Here’s how it works:
Responsive design serves the same URL and HTML to both mobile and desktop users, and CSS adjusts how the page renders based on the device. Like this:
Responsive design is ideal for SEO because it:
- Uses a single URL, allowing easy sharing and linking without a separate “mobile” URL
- Reduces common mobile site mistakes
- Requires less maintenance compared to other methods
- Eliminates the need for redirection, speeding up load times
- Saves resources when Google crawls your site, as Googlebot only crawls the page once
Here’s what it looks like on a real page:
Responsible design prevents duplicate content and slow redirects. It also simplifies the user experience across various device sizes.
Are There Alternate Ways to Configure a Website for Mobile?
Yes, there are alternate ways to configure a website for mobile. You can use dynamic serving or separate URLs.
Dynamic Serving
Dynamic serving delivers different HTML code depending on the user’s device, but the URL remains the same. Here’s an example:
One potential issue with dynamic serving is that the server might send the wrong version of a page to certain devices.
For example, a smartphone user might see the desktop version. Which can negatively impact the user experience.
Separate URLs
Using separate URLs gives you one desktop URL and one mobile URL (often using “m” or “mobile”).
When a user visits a site that uses separate desktop and mobile URLs, the server detects the device type and directs the user to either the mobile or desktop version.
Using separate URLs can be time-consuming to manage and can slow things down given they require redirection.
You also need to add rel="canonical" tags and rel="alternate" tags to the HTML code given there are two versions of each page. To inform Google which is the primary version of each page and which is another version.
- On mobile pages: Set a rel="canonical" tag pointing to the desktop version
- On desktop pages: Set a rel="alternate" tag pointing to the mobile version
If you don’t set these tags correctly, Google may view the desktop and mobile pages as duplicate content. Which can cause confusion about what page to prioritize—and that can lead to lower or even no rankings.
How to Check if Your Site Is Optimized for Mobile
Once you’ve implemented a mobile version of your site, use Semrush's Site Audit tool to check for issues related to mobile SEO.
Go to the “Issues” report to view a full list of errors, warnings, and notices.
Click “Why and how to fix it” for advice on any issue. Or follow the blue links to see affected pages.
Many of these issues affect SEO on all device types.
But you can focus on mobile-specific issues, such as those concerning Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or viewport meta tags. Just click the three dots next to “Meta Tags” and select “Mobile SEO.”
After making improvements to your mobile SEO, rerun your audit to ensure the issues have been resolved.
9 Mobile SEO Tips & Best Practices
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let's discuss how to perform mobile search optimization.
Here are nine essential tips and best practices for mobile SEO:
1. Create Mobile-Friendly Content
Creating mobile-friendly content ensures your content is easy to read and navigate on small screens.
Optimize your content for mobile by using short paragraphs, brief introductions, and ample white space. Also, remove any intrusive pop-ups from your site.
Use Short Paragraphs
Short paragraphs are always helpful for conveying a single idea and avoiding visual overwhelm. They’re even more important for mobile devices given the same copy takes up more space on a mobile device’s screen.
While there’s no specific number of sentences per paragraph, consider breaking up paragraphs that appear longer than five lines on mobile devices.
Splitting longer sentences into shorter ones also helps mobile users skim the content more easily.
Here’s an example of hard-to-skim versus easy-to-skim paragraphs on mobile:
You can further enhance readability by incorporating elements like bulleted or numbered lists, tables, images, and videos.
Being mindful of how you structure paragraphs and elements like bulleted lists also helps you optimize for AI search, as large language models (LLMs) tend to surface well-structured content.
Keep Introductions Short
Since mobile devices have limited screen space, a short introduction allows you to hook users early and gets to the main point quickly.
If the article focuses on a question-based keyword, answer the question at the very beginning.
For example, if someone searches “what does a dermatologist do,” they should find the answer in the first sentence of the corresponding section. Like this:
Use White Space Effectively
White space (the blank space between text blocks, images, and margins) is crucial in web design because it improves readability. And this is key for mobile devices that have small screens.
Consider the difference between these two examples:
The version of the text on the right feels much less cramped because of the additional white space.
Avoid Intrusive Pop-Ups
Google penalizes “intrusive pop-ups” that cover the main content on a mobile device as soon as the page loads, specifically intrusive interstitial pop-ups.
Below are examples of what not to do, according to Google. Because the pop-ups obstruct the main content.
It’s OK to use pop-ups to ask users to accept cookies or verify a user’s age. You can even include a traditional ad—so long as it uses a reasonable amount of screen space.
If you choose to use pop-ups, ensure they serve a clear purpose and don’t hide your page’s content behind ads or other promotional messages.
2. Use Structured Data on Your Mobile Website
Using structured data (markup that conveys information about your content) helps Google and AI systems understand your content more easily.
Specifically, schema markup is the type of structured data used to convey information that search engines and LLMs can understand.
Using schema markup can make your content eligible to display elements like recipe stars or reviews directly in your listings in traditional search results. This transforms your normal search results into rich snippets that make your webpages stand out—especially on mobile.
Here’s an example of a rich snippet containing the product’s rating, availability, and price:
And research from AirOps shows that pages with Article, HowTo, or FAQ schema are nearly 80% more likely to be cited by large language model tools (LLMs).
3. Target Voice Search-Friendly Keywords
Voice search-friendly keywords are crucial for mobile SEO because most voice searches happen on mobile devices.
People using voice assistants to search typically speak more casually, so optimize your content for conversational or semantic search.
To start, find question-based long-tail keywords.
Focusing on long-tail keywords also assists with AI search visibility. Because users typically prompt LLMs with full questions, such as “what is the best face sunscreen for oily skin?”
Go to the Keyword Magic Tool, enter one of your target keywords, enter your domain for personalized insights, and click “Search.”
Then, filter your list of keywords by “Questions.”
You’ll see a list of questions that people commonly search for.
The purple columns display AI insights. In this case, your Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD %) score.
The AI insights help you decide whether a keyword is worth pursuing.
For example, if a keyword has a high PKD % and you have a small or newer site, that term isn’t an ideal choice. Because your website has a minimal chance of achieving high rankings in traditional search results.
Instead, choosing terms with a PKD % ranging from “Very easy” to “Possible” is a better fit for small and new websites.
4. Optimize Mobile Site Speed
Providing a good page experience is essential for ranking well in Google search results, and part of that is ensuring your webpages load quickly.
More specifically, Google recommends that you receive passing scores for each of the three Core Web Vitals metrics (which assess page experience):
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes for the main content to load
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How quickly your site responds to user interactions
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much your webpage shifts unexpectedly as content loads
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to check any page’s mobile load speed (particularly LCP) and identify issues that could impact your mobile SEO.
To use PageSpeed Insights, enter your URL into the tool to get a full report.
Your PageSpeed Insights report will look similar to this:
Scroll down to see recommendations for ways to improve your page’s performance.
Implement the suggestions to improve your page’s performance. If you’re unsure of how to act on a particular recommendation, work with a developer.
5. Optimize Title Tags & Meta Descriptions for Mobile SERPs
Optimizing title tags and meta descriptions can improve your pages’ click-through rates (CTRs) and improve their appearance on mobile devices.
To increase the chances of your title tags being used in search results, keep them between 50 and 60 characters. Like this:
A recent study by John McAlpin shows that longer title tags are far more likely to be rewritten before showing in search results.
Additional title tag tips include:
- Targeting one primary keyword
- Avoiding keyword stuffing (using keywords unnaturally)
- Making each page’s title unique
- Front-loading important information
For meta descriptions, keep them under 105 characters to increase the chances of them showing unchanged in search results. Longer descriptions may be too long for mobile, and Google might cut them off or rewrite them.
Additional meta description tips for mobile include:
- Summarizing your page’s content
- Using unique descriptions for every page
- Including your primary keyword
- Adding a call to action or a value proposition to encourage clicks
6. Monitor Your Mobile Keyword Rankings
Track your mobile rankings by setting up a Position Tracking campaign.
When creating your campaign, select “Mobile” under the device category.
Follow the remaining prompts to finish configuring Position Tracking. And once setup is complete, go to the “Overview” tab and scroll down to the “Rankings Overview” table to see how visible you are for your specified terms.
If you have a Semrush Business or Guru account, you can compare mobile and desktop rankings for your tracked keywords.
Visit the “Devices & Locations” tab and click “+ Add new target.”
Select “Desktop” as the device type this time. And use the same keywords as before.
Now, you can see the difference between desktop and mobile performance for your tracked keywords:
If you opted to receive weekly email updates while setting up your Position Tracking campaign, you’ll be notified of any drops in your rankings. So you can take action before they significantly affect your traffic.
7. Review Your Competitors’ Mobile SEO Results
Reviewing your competitors’ mobile SEO results allows you to benchmark your performance and discover opportunities for improvement.
Use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool to compare yourself with up to four competitors at the same time.
Go to Keyword Gap, enter your domain, add your competitors’ domains, and click “Compare.”
You’ll get a report showing those domains’ keyword rankings overlap. Set the “Device” drop-down to “Mobile” to see mobile-specific rankings.
Scroll down to the table and select the “Missing” tab to see terms all your competitors rank for on mobile that you don’t rank for.
Review the list to find keyword opportunities you’ve missed.
8. Compare Desktop vs. Mobile Site Traffic
Use Google Analytics to compare how your pages perform on desktop vs. mobile devices.
Start by logging in to your Google Analytics account.
Go to “Reports” > “Acquisition” > “Traffic acquisition” using the left-hand navigation bar.
Click “Add comparison +” at the top of the page.
Then, check the boxes next to “Mobile traffic” and “Web traffic” (“Tablet traffic” is also available). And click “Apply.”
You’ll see a graph comparing mobile and desktop traffic over your chosen period.
Scroll down to see a detailed breakdown of traffic acquisition by channel, such as organic search and direct.
This report helps you monitor the results of your mobile SEO strategy and verify that your efforts are leading to organic traffic growth.
Be aware that AI Overviews and other LLMs may diminish your organic search traffic over time. In fact, we project that AI search visitors will surpass visitors from traditional search by 2028.
This is important context as you compare historical traffic data on mobile and desktop. The traffic reports could show fewer visits simply because fewer people are using search engines.
Within Google Analytics, you could also see the following as AI search adoption grows:
- More direct traffic: If users encounter your brand in AI responses, they may visit your site later by typing the URL directly
- More referral traffic: When users click through to your site directly from an LLM answer, GA4 typically categorizes those visits as referrals
9. Optimize for AI Overviews
Optimizing for AI Overviews increases the chances you’ll be cited in these AI-generated answers. On mobile devices, these AI-generated answers can take up almost half the screen by default.
The prevalence and prominence of AI Overviews means users are more likely to get their questions answered right away. So, they may be less likely to scroll and click on the other search results.
However, you can still benefit if the AI answer mentions or links to you.
Being mentioned in AI Overviews typically requires getting featured on reputable websites, review platforms, and forums like Reddit. On platforms outside your website that you own (e.g., G2, TrustRadius, Google Business Profile, etc.), ensure that information about your business is accurate and up to date.
Getting links in AI Overviews requires you to publish high-quality, comprehensive content. Traditional mobile and on-page SEO best practices apply, but you can take extra steps like:
- Writing for natural language processing (NLP). Be clear and direct—and minimize ambiguity.
- Incorporating relevant statistics and expert quotes
- Keeping your content up to date
Use Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool to check whether any of your target keywords trigger AI Overviews. Start by entering the term and clicking “Search.”
Scroll to the “SERP Analysis” section. You’ll see the “AI Overview” symbol at the top if this SERP feature appears for your target keyword.
You can also track your pages’ visibility in AI Overviews using the Position Tracking tool. Return to your campaign (the mobile one), go to the “Overview” tab, and scroll down to “Rankings Overview.”
If one of your pages appears in an AI Overview, you’ll see this symbol next to the SERP position metric:
Mobile SEO Analysis: Plaid’s Website
To see mobile SEO in practice, let’s look at Plaid’s website—we’ll focus on the EU version.
The site uses a floating navigation bar that keeps options collapsed to save space. On the homepage, the bar disappears as the user scrolls to help minimize distractions.
Links are prominent and easy to tap on small screens. And Plaid makes good use of white space and short paragraphs.
We did some additional analysis and ran a Site Audit to reveal that Plaid’s also relying on these best practices:
- The use of schema markup (FAQ, Article, Breadcrumb, etc.)
- Responsive design that adapts the website to mobile screens without horizontal scrolling or other layout issues
- Pages that load in 0.08 seconds on average, well under the 2.5-second threshold SEOs recommend to align with Google’s LCP benchmark
- The title tags and meta descriptions are generally short enough to appear in mobile SERPs
- Content is structured to be easy to read and navigate on small screens
Most importantly, Plaid’s website delivers the same quality of user experience on mobile as it does on desktop.
Supercharge Your Mobile SEO
Users are choosing mobile devices over desktop devices, so it’s crucial to ensure your site is mobile-friendly.
Now that you understand mobile search engine optimization, apply these best practices to your own site.
To test any of the Semrush tools mentioned above, sign up for a free trial today.