Do you need to gather mobile data to help your website compete in the mobile-first index? Semrush’s database currently has mobile data in 28 regional databases and the ability to track mobile SERP positions in any city in the world using Position Tracking.
There are many tools on Semrush that gather mobile data. This article will show you how to audit a mobile website, find your mobile competitors, create optimized content for mobile search, and track your progress on the mobile SERPs.
Run a Mobile Site Audit
Create a Project for the website that you want to improve and set up the Site Audit tool. In the configuration, there are a few ways to make sure you crawl the mobile version of your site.
First, if your mobile site is on a different subdomain (m.example.com), enter the mobile version in the crawl scope field.
Next, select “crawl AMP pages first.” This will make sure that if you are using AMPs on your site, we will audit all of those as a priority, before non-AMPs. Site Audit checks for over 40 of the most common AMP-related issues so you’ll get notified if anything with your site’s AMPs are set up incorrectly.
Then, in Crawler Settings, change the User Agent to SemrushBot-Mobile.
Select these options and your audit will crawl in the same way Google’s mobile crawler will go through your website.
Now, your audit results will show you where the website needs improvement and how close it is to being totally healthy and optimized for mobile.
Identify Mobile Competitors
Next, you’ll want to start a competitive analysis of who your site will be competing with for mobile traffic. Go to Organic Research and use the filter at the top of the report to change the database from desktop to mobile.
Now jump into the Competitors report to see a list of the websites that currently compete with your site the most on mobile.
These are the websites that share the most common keywords and have similar mobile keyword portfolio sizes as your site.
Analyze Your Competitor’s Mobile Keywords
From the Competitors report, you jump directly into analyzing a competing site’s mobile keyword portfolio.
Click on the Common Keywords (1) to open a mobile Keyword Gap comparison between your two websites.
Click on the SE Keywords (2) to open an Organic Positions report to see that competitor’s organic mobile keyword positions.
Both of these options will give you insight into keywords that you could be targeting or improving your existing rankings for.
Collect Mobile SEO Ideas
Once you’ve identified keywords from your competitors that you want to target, go to the On Page SEO Checker to get recommendations on how to improve them.
To set up the On Page SEO Checker for mobile, switch the targeting from “Desktop” to “Phone” in the first step of the configuration wizard.
After selecting “Phone” as your device, select “Continue” to add the keywords to your campaign. The next window will let you choose keywords and target landing pages to add to your campaign from various sources.
Auto Import will take keywords from Organic Research (or Position Tracking if you already set up Position Tracking) that Semrush found your site ranking on Google’s second page or beyond.
In addition to these keywords, manual import will let you add the keywords that you found from your competitors. You can also import keywords from a file or from Google Search Console.
After you’ve added all of your target keywords and landing pages, select “Collect ideas” and you’ll get recommendations on how to optimize these pages for mobile search.
Write Mobile SEO-Friendly Content
If you want to create new content to target these mobile keywords, you can create an SEO Content Template with phone targeting. This will ensure that Semrush’s recommendations come from analyzing the top ranking landing pages on mobile for your target keyword.
As you draft your content, you can import the SEO Writing Assistant to your draft in Google Docs or Wordpress to check how closely you’re following the template in real-time.
This makes it super easy to make sure your content has a nice level of readability while also including the most relevant related keywords in your web page or post.
Unify Your Local Business Listings
Managing local listings is crucial to a local SEO strategy that targets mobile users.
The best way to ensure your local business will appear on mobile search is to distribute and unify your local listings, which can be done easily with the Listing Management tool. This tool distributes and updates local business information on more than 80 websites and business directories.
You should monitor Google Map rankings because Google Maps is an easy way for customers to find you through local search queries. If you’re not properly optimized for Google Maps, you could be losing business. Use Map Rank Tracker to help you optimize your listings for Google Maps.
Local SEO statistics prove the value of replying to reviews. Review Management brings your reviews from multiple platforms into one handy interface so you can get back to them all at once.
Read more about Semrush Local here.
Track Your Website’s Positions on Mobile SERPs
To track how well your website is ranking for these valuable mobile keywords, set up Position Tracking campaign targeting your keywords on mobile devices.
In the configuration wizard, make sure you change the target device from desktop to mobile. After choosing your target location and device, you can add your competitors and keywords to the campaign and start tracking.
As you add content to your site, fix local listings, and improve technical SEO, you can follow how well your site improves by measuring Visibility %, Estimated Traffic, and Average Position.
If you’re working with a local business you can check up on the site’s visibility among local packs and SERP Features like site links and reviews as well. Learn more about how to use Position Tracking in the user manual.
Recap of tools to use for mobile SEO data:
- Site Audit
- Organic Research
- Organic Competitors Report
- Keyword Gap
- Organic Positions Report
- On Page SEO Checker
- SEO Content Template
- SEO Writing Assistant
- Listing Management
- Position Tracking
Let us know if this article is helpful with the button below! If you have any other needs for mobile research, let us know in the feedback box.