Brian Klais gave a presentation on mobile SEO best practices. He discussed Google's emphasis on mobile-friendly sites and provided tips on proper redirects, serving relevant mobile content, using canonical tags, optimizing responsive designs, promoting apps, and app-optimizing social links. The presentation emphasized the importance of following Google's guidance to avoid mobile penalties and maximize rankings.

1. San Francisco • September 10–13, 2013 • #SESSF @SESConf
Mobile SEO: Let The Games Begin!
Brian Klais
Pure Oxygen Labs
Founder and CEO

2. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
“Your Free Mobile SEO Trial is Over”
“…we plan to roll out several
ranking changes in the near
future that address sites that are
misconfigured for smartphone
users.”

3. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Fortune 100 Mobile Recap
http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/research-two-thirds-of-the-fortune-100-are-not-mobile-optimized-for-google

4. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
94% Face Mobile Ranking Risks
http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/research-two-thirds-of-the-fortune-100-are-not-mobile-optimized-for-google

5. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Err On Side of No Mobile Errors
What Google says …
• If a searcher visits a desktop page from a mobile
device, redirect to an equivalent smartphone-
friendly URL not a 404 page.
• Make sure the smartphone-friendly page is not an
error page.
• If your content is not available in a smartphone-
friendly format, serve the desktop page instead.

6. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
The Penalty for Mobile 404s
?
“GM” Query
(September 2013)
“GM” Query
(June 2013)

7. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Diagnosing a Faulty Redirect
Status: 200

8. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Diagnosing a Faulty Redirect
Status: 200
http://www.ford.com/Cars/Mustang/models/…
http://pixel.everesttech.net/2519/cq?ev_sid=3&
ev_ln=mustangconvertible&ev_crx=17785702469&ev_m
t=b&ev_n=g&ev_ltx=&ev_pl=&ev_pos=1t1&ev_dvc=c&e
v_dvm=&url=http://www.ford.com/Cars/Mustang/mode
ls/?searchid=61240949|2322886349|11611920
http://m.ford.com/Cars/Mustang/models/…

9. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Diagnosing a Faulty Redirect
View this mobile redirect header:
http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/view-mobile-redirects/#!=http://www.ford.com/Cars/Mustang/models

10. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Serve Relevant Mobile Content
What Google says…
• Route mobile searchers to relevant mobile pages
• If mobile searcher requests example.com/article29, redirect to the
equivalent mobile page, such as m.example.com/article29
• Don’t redirect to the m.example.com homepage

11. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Serve Relevant Mobile Content
• Implement server-side wildcard pattern matching / conditional redirect
logic to target top user-agents (eg iPhone, Android, etc.,)
• Javascript redirects are less optimal but are supported by Google
• When targeting by user-agent, remember Android tablets and phones
both have “Android”. To target phones, match on “Android AND mobile”;
to target tablets, match on “Android and not mobile”

12. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Serve Relevant Mobile Content

13. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Tag Pages with Canonical Markup
What Google says…
• Canonical markup helps make content visible to bots and searchers
• If you have an “m.” mobile site:
– Each desktop page should contain a "rel=alternate" link meta tag that
points to the mobile URL
– Each mobile page should contain a "rel=canonical" meta tag that points to
the desktop URL
• Alternatively add notation to Sitemaps file
• Consider Javascript redirects that match on link value

14. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Canonical Link Markup: Just Do It.

15. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Tag Conditional Content/Redirects
What Google says…
• Sites that customize mobile experience based on user-agent settings need to
make it clear to bots that content varies by user agent
• When your server modifies content or redirects mobile searchers or bots, that
page’s “Vary” HTTP header must contain "user agent”

16. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Conditional Server Redirect Tag
View this mobile redirect header:
http://www.pureoxygenmobile.com/view-mobile-redirects/!=http://www.amazon.com/ref=gno_logo

17. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
RWD ≠ SEO
What Google says…
• Target smartphones via “max-width 640px” @media queries
• Pages should load in <1 second
• Average RWD page weighs 2x more than an average “m.” page
• Do your media queries apply to all pages - or just home page?
• Take advantage of compression, caching, image optimization
– Free tools: http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights

18. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Promote Apps Intelligently
What Google says:
• Avoid promoting app via interstitial pages
• Use a simple banner to promote your app inline
with page content
• Promote appropriately based on OS (e.g. Smart
App Banners for Safari)
• Or use an HTML image that links to the correct
app store

19. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Promote Apps Intelligently
• Add iOS meta tag to pages (m. AND www.):
Ex: <meta name=“apple-itunes-app” content=“app-id={id}” />
• Embedded browsers (eg Facebook) may not support
• Cross-platform “smart banners” are available via Jquery
on Android and older iOS
• Expose crawlable link too for Google rankings
• Make sure app supports URL schemes for app-linking

20. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
Add Banner to Deep Pages, Too.
(And Why Not Link Into The App?)

21. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
If Social Is Driving Organic Rankings…
http://www.searchmetrics.com/en/services/ranking-factors-2013/

22. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
…And If We Use Social Apps 4x Web…
4x!

23. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
… Aren’t These Broken Links?

24. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
App-Optimize Your Social Links
URL Scheme protocols for top social apps:
– Google+ => gplus://plus.google.com/{id}
– Facebook => fb://profile/{fbid}
– Twitter => twitter://user?screen_name={id}
– Foursquare => foursquare://venues/{id}
– LinkedIn => linked://profile/{id}
– Pinterest => pinterest://user/{id}/
– Yelp => yelp:///biz/{id}
• Don’t present mobile users social login wall
• Send iOS and Android users directly into apps (Facebook, Google+,
Twitter) for more likes, check-ins, +1s, reviews

25. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
The Mobile SEO Games Are On!

26. San Francisco| September 10–13, 2013 | #SESSF | @SESConf
@BrianKlais
May The Odds Be Ever in Your Favor!
Brian Klais
Founder | CEO
Pure Oxygen Labs
brian@pureoxygenlabs.com