Mobile search is generally searching on mobile phones, while iPad and other tablets are regarded as PC by Baidu, because their resolutions and user experience are similar to those of PC.
Different SEO Tactics for Different Mobile Sites
Generally there are three categories of mobile search optimizations.
1. Independent mobile site with different formats and URLs.
Although their URLs are different, they share the same content, and there is a one-to-one correspondence between them. Usually the desktop version website begins with WWW., while the mobile version begins with m.
- Self-adapted
When users visit the desktop website on their phones, it would jump to the respective mobile version automatically; and when users visit the mobile version on their PCs, it would jump to the respective desktop version of website.
- Meta label
In case that such jumping couldn’t be realized due to technical issues, meta could be used to inform search engines of corresponding relations between the two versions.
Google requires that such meta tags should be added on both desktop and mobile pages, while Baidu requires the tags to be added on desktop pages only.
- Sitemap
If either meta or redirects are not available, then sitemap could be used to tell search engines your corresponding relations between desktop pages and mobile pages.
You can set your sitemap via Baidu’s search platform – contact a Baidu SEO Agency for more details or assistance.
As for Google, you could add the same “alternate” in your ordinary sitemap of desktop version. Note that tag of rel=”canonical” also needs to be reserved for mobile pages.
Be careful not to assign one desktop page to multiple mobile pages or vice versa.
2. Mobile version adapted from desktop website
In this case, both mobile version and desktop version would share the same URLs; therefore, there would be no redirects and search engines wouldn’t have to detect correspondences between two version or crawl the duplicate content for two times.
3. No mobile version
When a website has neither independent mobile version nor adapted mobile version, Baidu would help transcode the desktop website into mobile pages suitable for mobile devices.
You could also use Baidu’s “Mobile Instant Pages” feature (MIP) to create a MIP mobile site, which would enjoy priority in rankings.
Optimization Tips for All Mobile Pages
User experience should be focused in SEO optimization of mobile pages:
- Fast load
Weights of webpages should be as low as possible to create faster website load.
- Easy clicks
The links/buttons on mobile pages should be big enough to make clicks easy.
- Quick find
Classification of your content should be clear, so that visitors would be able to find what they want easily and quickly.
- Readable
Avoid tiny and illegible fonts. Some WordPress themes have built-in Chinese versions, but the fonts used for their templates are usually not readable, so find a specialized SEO agency from China to inspect all Chinese fonts used on your website.
- No pop-up windows
It’s a headache to see and close pop-up windows on mobile phones, and this is not recommended by Baidu – targeted by its Pomegranate Algorithm released in 2013, so just avoid them.