With mobile devices driving over 70% of global web traffic, mobile SEO is more critical than ever in 2025. As Google continues its mobile-first indexing, websites must be fast, user-friendly, and optimised for AI-driven search experiences.
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the approach to practice strategies to rank your content or website on Google or, matter of fact, any search engine, such as Bing or Yahoo, regardless of the device used.
Note: This blog post was updated from an article first published on 5 Oct 2021.
What is Mobile SEO?
Mobile SEO is the methodical approach to design a website with responsiveness in usability and functionality, improving the organic search for smartphone users.
The statistics show that 88.97% and 89.64% of the total populations in Malaysia and Singapore have smartphone users who access the internet through their mobile devices. With that being said, it is quintessential for companies in Singapore and Malaysia to adapt advanced search techniques for better positioning on the search engines.
With fast-growing technology advancements, it is not far when search engines would prefer search queries through voice. Technology is about convenience for the user. If you provide a good user experience, the traffic would certainly be inclined towards your website.
5 CRITICAL Mobile SEO FACTORS
To get better rankings on Google, your website needs to work properly on mobile devices. There are considerable chances your audience will not look you up again on your website if it is not mobile-friendly. So the major part of mobile SEO is to offer the best user experience for your targeted audience.
#1 - Mobile-Friendly UX & Responsive Web Design
Google’s mobile-first indexing means poor mobile UX can hurt rankings. A seamless mobile experience is essential.
A critical part of mobile friendliness is responsive web design.
Responsive web design (RWD) is an approach to website development that ensures a site adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices. Whether a user is browsing on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone, the website automatically adjusts its layout, images, and content for an optimal viewing experience.
When your website it is being built, it is critical to sure to:
- Use responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes.
- Ensure tap-friendly buttons (min. 48px size) for easy navigation.
- Avoid intrusive interstitials (pop-ups) that harm user experience.
How to Check if Your Website is Mobile-friendly
The easiest way to check mobile-friendliness or issues encountered during your website’s loading is through Google’s mobile page testing tool. The mobile-friendly test tool of Google can provide you with all the necessary information you require to properly maintain your website’s mobile version.
If you see the above test results of our website, Evolve & Adapt, you will understand how it displays the responsive mobile version on the right with the result on the left saying the page is mobile-friendly.
All you need to do is enter the page URL and click “Test URL”. It will not just show you if the page is mobile-friendly, it, as well, will guide you if there are any issues you need to fix. This tool serves as a green light.
Once you are done fixing the errors, you can easily continue working on the mobile SEO strategy to improve your website’s performance and online visibility.
#2 - Core Web Vitals & Mobile Performance
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics introduced by Google to improve the user experience. They are the ranking signals that evaluate speed, responsiveness and visual stability, delivering a great user experience on your website.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights offers three metrics that can help you measure the quality of your website’s user experience.
Largest Contentful Paint: the amount of time a page’s main content takes to load. An ideal LCP should be less than or equal to 2.5 seconds.
First Input Delay: the amount of time for a page to become interactive. Ideally, it should take less than or equal to 100ms.
Cumulative Layout Shift: the time consumed by the unexpected layout shift of visual page content. Ideally, it should be less than or equal to 0.1.
Nevertheless, why are we emphasising so much on the mobile version and not the desktop? Is it any different?
Even though the metrics are created for both desktop and mobile versions, yet, according to Google, only mobile signals will be used for rankings. Google has switched to mobile-first indexing, which means the indexed pages will be based on mobile versions, making it a significant part of mobile search engine optimisation.
You can measure Core Vitals through various tools, but Google’s PageSpeed Insights is the most popular tool of all. Enter your website’s URL and press “Analyse”.
Below is our website’s data extracted from the PageSpeed Insights with all the primary Core Web Vitals metrics optimised. A point to ponder is that even though we can view both desktop and mobile data, we will stick to improving the mobile version as much as we can. This does not mean we neglect the desktop version. The desktop’s performance is as important as mobile; however, SEO ranking-wise, we will emphasise overall mobile performance.
#3 - SEO-Friendly Content
When creating content for your website, whether it is text, images, video or other media, it is vital that the content is SEO friendly.
The great news is that in 2025, you can leverage AI tools to accelerate content creation as we explored in the linked article.
After your create your content, be sure to optimise them for SEO. Some fundamental methods include:
Firstly, you need to avoid using large images. High-resolution images load slowly, which gives a bad user experience; it increases the bounce rate. It is better to minimise image size. If you use WordPress, it is recommended to install an image optimiser, like Smush Image Compression. These tools significantly reduce the file size of your images, which can dramatically speed up the load time.
Secondly, make sure the images you upload have proper alt attributes, so search engines can crawl and index them as well. Use appropriate keywords throughout the content – you do not need keyword stuffing – keep it natural. Write keyword-rich meta descriptions. You do not want to lose a chance of getting ranked by a tiny mistake.
Pop-ups are widely used to draw the audience’s attention to certain offers; however, they can make a daunting experience for a mobile user if the pop-up takes the whole screen. Use pop-ups on the website where they are necessary. When you use a pop-up on your mobile version, make sure it does not hide the information essential to the users. Users may leave in frustration. Keep the website as much responsive as you can, so users can scroll through the website conveniently.
#4 - Local Search Intent (Local SEO)
Local SEO or local search engine optimisation focuses on optimising a website, so people searching for services or products nearby can locate them quickly. It is becoming increasingly crucial for location-based businesses, especially retail stores, restaurants and B2C service establishments.
Businesses use local SEO to promote their products and services to local customers at the exact time they are searching for them online, usually on mobile devices.
According to Google, 46% of the searches have a “local intent”. Websites that rank on the first position for location-based searches experience the highest increase in the “click-through rate” (6.32% on mobile and 4% on desktop).
In easy words, people, nowadays, search a lot with keywords “near me” or “where can I buy” to find local businesses around them. With so many local searches online – predominantly on mobile devices – you must adapt the strategy to reach these people to expand your business.
You can use local keywords such as “marketing consultant in Singapore”. You can use the item you offer with the city name or area name as the example above “marketing consultant in [city-name]”.
Using local keywords will help your business appear in local searches, which is a great mobile search engine optimisation strategy to excel in the business industry.
#5 - Zero-Click Searches & Featured Snippets
In 2025, over 60% of searches may not result in traditional clicks, as Google increasingly prioritises direct answers in featured snippets, knowledge panels, and other SERP features.
This shift presents both challenges and opportunities for marketers, making content optimisation for zero-click searches essential.
Zero-click searches occur when users find the information they need directly on the search results page without clicking on a website link.
This happens through:
- Featured snippets – Quick, structured answers appearing at the top of search results.
- Knowledge panels – Information-rich boxes pulled from authoritative sources.
- People Also Ask (PAA) sections – Related questions with expandable answers.
- Local packs – Map-based results showing businesses in the user’s area.
Optimisations you can do include:
Structure Content for Featured Snippets
- Use clear headings (H2, H3, H4) and structured subheadings for better scannability.
- Format answers using bullet points, numbered lists, or tables, as Google often pulls structured data for featured snippets.
- Answer common search queries concisely within the first 50–60 words of a section.
Use Schema Markup to Stand Out
- Implement FAQ schema to increase visibility in the “People Also Ask” section.
- Add How-To schema for instructional content, making it easier for Google to highlight steps.
- Use Local Business schema to improve search presence for location-based queries.
Optimise Meta Descriptions & Headings
- Make sure meta descriptions are compelling and include power words to entice clicks, even when a zero-click result is shown.
- Craft attention-grabbing headlines (H1s) that create curiosity and encourage further engagement.
- Use question-based headings (e.g., “What is the Best Chinese Restaurant in Singapore?”) to align with voice search queries and Google’s snippet selection criteria.
The Bottom Line
In 2025, mobile SEO is all about speed, AI adaptability, voice search, and privacy compliance. Businesses that prioritise mobile-first experiences and optimise for AI-driven search results will dominate rankings.
