Given on 16 May 2015 in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, this presentation by Keith Goode, Chief SEO Evangelist for seoClarity, shows the importance of mobile SEO is greater than ever for Japanese companies.

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The Importance of Mobile
SEO and How it is Different
than Desktop SEO
16 May 2015
Presented at:

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Your Presenter
20 years of Online Experience
– AMD
– HomeAway.com
– Builders Digital Experience
– SpareFoot.com
Dell (4 years)
– SEO Technology Lead, DCS (formerly
eDell)
– Technical SEO Instructor
Currently
– Chief SEO Evangelist, seoClarity www.linkedin.com/in/keithlgoode
@keithgoode
Keith L. Goode, Chief SEO Evangelist

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Key Takeaways
Smartphones will Overtake are Overtaking
Feature Phones in Japan
Responsive and Adaptive Sites Are More
Necessary Than Ever
The Key to Successful Mobile SEO is
Technical Excellence

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Google’s Announcement

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How to be Multi-Screen
FriendlyThree Types of Mobile-Friendly Design
o Using responsive design (Google’s preference) - where your site resizes its
layout & fonts depending on the screen of the device viewing the page
o Setting up your server to dynamically serve mobile pages
o Creating a separate “m.” mobile site version

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Mobile-Friendly or Bust

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Why was this Announcement
Important?
• First time an algorithm change has been
globally implemented
• Marks a change in the way Google
communicates algorithm updates

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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR
YOU?
Globalization of Algorithmic Changes

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Japan’s Mobile Market Is
Changing
Japan has been a
stronghold for Feature
Phones for many years

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Flip-Phone persistence
By comparison to
other world markets,
penetration of
smartphones has
been slower in
Japan.
But…

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Japan’s Youth More Likely to Use
Smart phones
The young demographic is
changing how Japan uses
mobile
 Over 70% of young people
use smart phones
 Compare to 75% of all US
mobile subscribers, who use
smartphones
 Many large companies are
assigning smart phones to
their employees
Courtesy:

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Organic Mobile Traffic
-
20,000,000
40,000,000
60,000,000
80,000,000
100,000,000
120,000,000
140,000,000
January April July October January April July October
~400% increase
in mobile traffic
over 2 years

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Mobile Will Exceed
Desktop
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
January April July October January April July October
We’re just about 2
years away from
mobile taking over
desktop percentages
on most sites.

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19.3%
11.4%
7.7%
5.2%
4.1%
3.3%
2.6%2.1%2.0%2.2%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
27.7%
9.2%
3.9% 6.7%
4.8%
3.9%3.1%
2.9% 2.3%2.8%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Desktop Mobile
Desktop vs. Mobile CTR

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WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?
Post-Mobilegeddon

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How Did Mobile Ranking Change after
April 21st?
• We saw only a maximum shift of 6.1% after the mobile change
• Gary Illyes of Google said that they saw many sites become
mobile-friendly that were not before the announcement.
• Your competitors have changed. Have you?

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Winners and Losers - UK
• 75,000 keywords
• Measured change between April 18th and
April 25th
• Google mobile change was on April 21st
• Measured impact to Top 3 results in
Google.co.uk

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Who saw Negative results in
the UK?Domain 18-Apr 25-AprChange % Change
www.virginholidays.co.uk 424 0 -424 -100.00%
www.thebodyshop.co.uk 96 0 -96 -100.00%
www.webmd.com 146 29 -117 -80.10%
m.airbnb.co.uk 1,598 524 -1,074 -67.20%
www.carphonewarehouse.com 1,891 801 -1,090 -57.60%
m.airbnb.com 249 109 -140 -56.20%
www.johnlewis.com 2,617 1,570 -1,047 -40.00%
www.haven.com 311 217 -94 -30.20%
www.pcmag.com 473 359 -114 -24.10%
www.voucherbox.co.uk 1,091 942 -149 -13.70%
www.next.co.uk 1,026 889 -137 -13.40%
www.money.co.uk 1,065 927 -138 -13.00%
www.cnet.com 1,605 1,490 -115 -7.20%
www.myvouchercodes.co.uk 1,910 1,811 -99 -5.20%
www.tripadvisor.co.uk 23,929 23,508 -421 -1.80%

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Who saw Positive Results in
the UK?Domain 18-Apr 25-AprChange % Change
m.carphonewarehouse.com 0 1,093 1,093 100%
www.hgtv.com 1 185 184 18400.00%
www.sherwin-williams.com 3 199 196 6533.30%
www.loquax.co.uk 19 653 634 3336.80%
m.virginholidays.co.uk 46 545 499 1084.80%
www.pogo.com 46 308 262 569.60%
www.games.com 143 597 454 317.50%
www.airbnb.co.uk 1,306 2,451 1,145 87.70%
m.johnlewis.com 2,145 3,232 1,087 50.70%
itunes.apple.com 914 1,129 215 23.50%
www.goodreads.com 1,191 1,448 257 21.60%
uk.pinterest.com 1,020 1,217 197 19.30%
www.theguardian.com 3,550 3,865 315 8.90%
en.m.wikipedia.org 15,314 16,556 1,242 8.10%
m.youtube.com 13,033 13,618 585 4.50%
Ranking Switched to
Mobile site
m.Airbnb sites
migrated to
responsive design

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Who saw Negative results in
the UK?Domain 18-Apr 25-AprChange % Change
www.virginholidays.co.uk 424 0 -424 -100.00%
www.thebodyshop.co.uk 96 0 -96 -100.00%
www.webmd.com 146 29 -117 -80.10%
m.airbnb.co.uk 1,598 524 -1,074 -67.20%
www.carphonewarehouse.com 1,891 801 -1,090 -57.60%
m.airbnb.com 249 109 -140 -56.20%
www.johnlewis.com 2,617 1,570 -1,047 -40.00%
www.haven.com 311 217 -94 -30.20%
www.pcmag.com 473 359 -114 -24.10%
www.voucherbox.co.uk 1,091 942 -149 -13.70%
www.next.co.uk 1,026 889 -137 -13.40%
www.money.co.uk 1,065 927 -138 -13.00%
www.cnet.com 1,605 1,490 -115 -7.20%
www.myvouchercodes.co.uk 1,910 1,811 -99 -5.20%
www.tripadvisor.co.uk 23,929 23,508 -421 -1.80%
Don’t rely on your mobile
app exclusively.

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27.7%
9.2%
3.9% 6.7%
4.8%
3.9%
3.1%
2.9% 2.3% 2.8%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Mobile CTR
Desktop vs. Mobile CTR
If you’re not in
Position 1, you
might as well be
on Page 2 of
results

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GLOBALIZATION OF GOOGLE
SERP CHANGES
How Can You Prepare?

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Tap In to the Evolutionary direction of
Googlebot
From Binary To Parsing JavaScript

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Bots Emulating Human
Users Google’s bots and
algorithm are trying
to understand words
as concepts with
meaning
Simple repetition of
keywords and phrases no
longer satisfies Google’s
relevancy scores
Old saying: “Build your site as if bots and SERPs don’t exist.”
“Build your site for users.”

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Be Multi-Screen Friendly
Your site should adapt to whatever screen your user is using:
Desktops
Tablets
PhabletsSmart Phones
Or Bionic Eyes

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Mobile will continue to gain
Market share
Wearable technology
will expand further
Big data will become
gargantuan data
Predictive analysis
and personalized
results will be 10X
more pervasive

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Strive for Technical
ExcellenceFast server and
page-load speeds
Crawlable
navigation
No broken
links
Server
canonicalization
and canonical tags
Use XML Sitemaps
Avoid
Microsoft
Silverlight or
Flash
Use HREFLANG for
international sites
Test site using
text-based
browser, like Lynx

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Use Schema Markup to tag
Your content
Schema markup
helps algorithms
understand content
on a page
Currently used
schemas include:
• Product
• Reviews
• Videos
• Offers
This translates into
rich snippets in
Google and Bing

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Create Engaging,
appropriate ContentAddress your users’ needsMeet your users where
they are. Don’t wait for
them to come to you.
Inspire
Educate
Elicit an emotional response

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Key Takeaways
Smartphones will Overtake are Overtaking
Feature Phones in Japan
Responsive and Adaptive Sites Are More
Necessary Than Ever
The Key to Successful Mobile SEO is
Technical Excellence

31. Follow me: @keithgoode
THANK YOU!