Guide to mobile SEO
The guide to mobile SEO is divided into two short sections. I plan to make them longer in the future as I learn more about how mobile search engine algorithms work.
On-site mobile SEO best practices
- Use 100% valid XHTML 1.0 code. (Note: it is likely that WML will be phased out in the near future.) Many optimizers on the traditional WWW do not consider using valid code as a best practice. Mobile search engines however may have more trouble digesting invalid code. Be safe! If you validate, mobile search engines won't have any trouble with your site.
- Follow accessibility best practices. These will ensure that your content is accessible to anyone regardless of their platform — this includes mobile users and mobile search engines. The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative is a good place to turn for the latest information on accessibility. Dive Into Accessibility is also a useful tutorial.
- Follow traditional on-site SEO best practices. You know the drill: major keywords in the title tag, H1's and body text, keyword-rich anchor text for internal links, etc.
Getting spidered and indexed by mobile search engines
If you want mobile search engines to spider and index your site, they must know about it first. Submit your site to major mobile search engines for quick spidering.
It is also a good idea to ensure that each of your pages has at least one incoming link.
More information
If you wish to learn more, you may want to see our list of mobile search engines or mobile SEO resources page.