(SEO) Tablet Optimization: Its New Tablet Time

It is expected that across the world this year media tablet sales are going to hit over 60 million units. Many of which will be given or received at Christmas.

Tablets are designed to offer internet on the go and have become a big part of our lives, in fact I and many others like me haven’t even looked at our home laptops since we unwrapped our shiny new tablets last year. However, we need to evaluate what this means in terms of SEO.
1.     Tablet/Mobile Sites 
Tablet/Mobile sites have smaller screen sizes and while your site should be similar to the desktop website with the similar content there are key things to remember. Apple products do not have Flash support so without the use of flash your videos may not be compatible on tablets. This may cause problems with websites which rely heavily on flash videos and images on their sites.
Sites also need to consider design issues due to the smaller screens. Make sure your most important information is at the top of the page and aim to keep your site clean and clear.
Remember your mobile/tablet sites don’t have to be exact replicas.
2.     Analytics
Google Analytics recommends setting up an advanced segment to record mobile/ tablet that measure visits made directly from a mobile site. In regard to SEO we must use this advanced segment and create custom reports in order to measure mobile and tablet use.
3.     How will we measure visits to our mobile sites?
As you all know Google uses Cookies to identify visitors to a site. However, this is not yet compatible with mobile handsets and when it is compatible cookies are cleared more frequently due to the small memory space of tablets. My advice is to focus on setting up mobile analytics as discussed above to get accurate visit records.
4.     Google searches
Customers who use mobile/ tablets to search on search engines are less likely to type long tail terms i.e. black shoes with bows on them; instead they will type black shoes and expect the same result. My advice is to begin focusing on short tail terms in order to rank on mobile search sites.
From an SEO perspective the use of tablets and mobile are challenging if not exciting times. You will have to ensure that you are tablet ready.