SEO
25 Best About Us Page Examples On The Web
The About Us page of your website is an essential source of information for all who want to know more about your business.
About Us pages are where you showcase your history, what is unique about your work, your company’s values, and who you serve.
The design, written content, and visual or video elements together tell an important story about who you are and why you do it.
How can you make the most of this integral part of your marketing strategy?
In this article, you’ll learn what makes an exceptional About Us page.
You’ll find 25 examples of the best ones out there, too, to inspire your own About Us page design and content.
The Components Of A Great About Us Page
There isn’t a winning template to create a great About Us page. However, there are key components to make a convincing pitch with your brand story.
Your Mission
You don’t need to outright say, “our mission is ____,” but you should convey the mission of your business in your About Us copy. This is key for attracting talent, as well as leads that have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals.
Your Story (History)
Every business has an origin story worth telling, and usually, one that justifies why you even do business and have clients.
Some centennial enterprises have pages of content that can fit in this section, while startups can tell the story of how the company was born, its challenges, and its vision for the future.
Your Services (And Benefits)
Of course, you have a homepage and dedicated pages for your products, but summarizing your offerings on the About Us page is crucial to tie them in with brand values in your messaging.
Highlight the benefits and showcase what you do (and why it is unique).
Your Social Proof
Reviews, client logos, case studies, and results bring consistency to your About Us page. It’s what really proves what you are saying is real and the impact you can bring to future clients.
With these components in mind, you will have a framework from which to build an engaging and unique About Us page.
However, if you are looking for some inspiration, the 25 examples below will guide your creative process.
ToyFight is an award-winning creative design agency.
You’ll find the About Page at the top of the menu under the Who section.
This page has a unique feel, thanks to the deconstructed action figures representing the founders, Leigh Whipday and Jonny Lander.
The great attention to detail and interactivity also reflect the company’s 16 years of experience.
To sum up, this page stands out by providing the perfect mix of fun and information.
Band is a multidisciplinary creative studio based in the Pacific Northwest.
Their About Us page stands out by showcasing some of their unique and creative projects.
No number of words could hope to tell one of their potential clients nearly as much as these pictures can.
In this case, the 25 pictures featured on Band’s About Us page are worth much more than the 170 actual words you’ll read on the page.
The magical visuals and overall simple look and feel make this About Us page one of our top picks.
This might be the most distinctive website we’ve come across.
Anton & Irene is a design agency based in Manhattan.
Why are they a distinctive web presence?
Because their page takes parallax scrolling to the next level.
The snowy effects, bold colors, and quirky visuals create a truly captivating experience.
Pierro Caron is a French artisan sculptor.
Want to know our favorite part about his page?
The honesty.
Here is a man with great respect for wood and handcrafted sculptures that “tell a story and testify to the richness of one of our most precious resources.”
His website is light, easy to read, and filled with inspiring quotes and photos of his labors of love.
Who doesn’t love a good bio?
Especially one that starts with “I was born in good ol’ Madison, Wisconsin. The son of a Librarian and a Researcher.”
It also goes on to tell you how he and his family survived Hurricane Andrew and how his sister was born that night.
Who is this guy?
Blake Fili Suárez is an illustrator and designer with a fantastic sense of humor.
His quirkiness comes through thanks to his humorous tone and goofy picture.
The page, while minimalist in design, offers a glimpse into Suárez’s colorful personality and his impressive block of work.
If you were a “super awesome” video business, what medium would you choose to show people what you do?
Video, of course.
LessFilms is a video production company based in Florida with clients and team members all over the world.
On their about page, you’ll find a humorous 50-second video along with a short list of facts summarizing their love for tacos, travel, and karate – a theme that certainly permeates most of the content on the website.
DoomTree’s page starts off as a coming-of-age story about how “a mess of friends” built the record label that made them a household name in Minneapolis.
However, it’s really the audio and the visuals that got us hooked.
Why tell, when you can show, right?
Explore their About Us page to meet the crew, listen to their songs, and get the latest news.
On this website’s main page you will find everything lifestyle-related – fashion, food, beauty, home decor, and more.
But it’s the About section that introduces you to the team that makes this website an endless source of inspiration.
The page introduces founder Emily Schuman, as well as her blog, books, and fashion collection.
Want to stay in touch?
No problem – the page also features useful links to her social media pages, as well as her online shop.
NOWNESS is a video channel providing the best in global arts and culture.
Therefore, it’s only natural that their About Us page features a compilation of various videos they host.
The content’s diversity and the team’s curatorial expertise are another reason to keep you browsing.
To stay in line with their video-centric aesthetic, the text on their page is short and concise.
However, it still provides enough guidance for browsing the website and even contributing.
Access the awards section and see why NOWNESS is currently a powerhouse in online film and video.
Millions of people use Mailchimp every day to create, send, and track email newsletters.
That’s the clever part behind Mailchimp’s About Page.
It’s a great example of how to use such a page as a sort of pre-sales platform.
It’s simple, fun and effective, quite colorful, and displays a welcoming mix of diverseness.
Tate’s About Us states that their mission is to “increase the public’s enjoyment of British art […] and international modern and contemporary art.”
So said, so done.
How come?
Because this page eases the journey for any reader seeking to take them up on their mission.
Scroll down to find out who they are, how to stay in touch, and everything in between.
Yellow Leaf Hammocks is trying to save the world one hammock at a time.
Their goal is to break the cycle of extreme poverty by empowering local artisans in Thailand to earn a stable income.
The brand’s About Page is filled with uplifting stories of impeccable craftsmanship and tight-knit communities.
As a result, it’s just as inspiring as their devotion to sustainable change.
You had me at “Well hello there.”
Well, that’s exactly how the About Us section of Eight Hour Day starts – a welcoming greeting.
For that reason, it also made us browse for more.
Why?
Because as much as you love good design and inspiring illustrations, you also want to meet the people that curate all the content for you.
Furthermore, it’s equally rewarding when you realize that they are just as eager to start a visual dialogue with you.
Nathan Strandberg and Katie Kirk are doing what makes them happy, and this is obvious throughout their page.
You know you’re about to hop on a journey when a website’s About Us page tells you to “Just go.”
This is a website for travelers, so the layout is perfect for those eager to explore.
As you scroll down, you discover what Lonely Planet stands for, and their visual aid offers a preview of their services.
The perks?
You see everything in one go and decide for yourself what you take on your journey.
Will it be their apps, their printed guides, or their website?
In any case, every resource becomes an inexhaustible well of travel inspiration.
So, are you ready to go?
Gummisig is a freelance web designer who likes to talk about himself in the third person.
He also makes great use of oversized text to bring attention to his work in a humorous manner.
Perhaps what’s striking about this page is that it introduces Gummisig’s portfolio, but also reflects his free spirit and commitment.
And while he mentions the household names he worked for in the past, he remains approachable and open to new collaborations.
Scroll down to discover his preferred action items.
Hint: He wants to know your secrets!
Perhaps the most striking feature behind this page is that it acts as a preface to the designer’s portfolio, mirroring his free spirit and a remarkable passion for design.
While he proudly states the companies he has worked for (IKEA is just one of the bigger names to pop up), he does so in a manner that is not boastful.
Amnesty International is more than an NGO.
It is a global movement of more than 7 million people that are campaigning for a better world, where human rights are central.
It is no wonder that the pronoun we is prevalent throughout their page.
Filled with quotes, videos, and testimonials, their page makes you believe that you can hope for a better world. And they have the facts to prove it, too.
If you scroll down, you can access all their accomplishments on the road toward better social change.
After you understand their global footprint, you should also imagine – imagine the possibility of a world where human rights are at the center of discussion.
Good enough reason to stay in touch, no?
The top part of the Chattanooga Renaissance Fund page aims to attract entrepreneurs into the Chattanooga area of Tennessee.
How?
By describing its history and the companies that already invested there, such as Amazon or Volkswagen, to name a few.
Which begs the question: What prompted these companies to move there?
Find out by reading more about the fund’s members and how they contributed to its growth.
This is especially reassuring because they are also here to help you.
Whether you’re a startup, investor, or third party, the page has a dedicated section for all its users.
All you have to do is prove that you want to turn ideas into existence.
This website started off as a photography blog founded by Garance Doré.
Eventually, it became a place for inspiration with a growing team that’s eager to question everything.
Whether it is style, femininity, or modern dilemmas, no topic remains off limits.
Ready to contribute to the discussion? By all means, you are most welcome.
The team reads all your comments and is ready to turn your thoughts into their command.
Not sure where to start?
Scroll down to see their work in videos and use the pictures at the bottom to access their Instagram page.
How can you convince men to delve into skincare?
You bring their best friend on their side – a dog.
Meet Bulldog Skincare, the company that aims to make skincare options dedicated to men readily available.
To have you sold, their About Us page greets you with the adorable mug of a bulldog.
This quickly becomes your guide to finding the products that will help you look and feel your best.
As you scroll down, you are growing familiar with the products and are slowly but surely befriending the brand itself and its values.
Their skincare is made from a mix of natural and carefully-selected man-made ingredients.
It’s also vegan and certified by Cruelty Free International.
Their page is so good, it’s no wonder they have a ‘Shop Now’ button every step of the way.
Don’t mind if I do.
Navigating through Couro Azul’s About Us page is like a journey through the unknown.
The kind of journey that keeps you scrolling down for more.
The company makes leather upholstery for cars and trains, and its history and trajectory are equally fascinating.
In addition to the visual delight, the page is also interactive and engaging.
Why?
So that you can understand what the company values from a first browse: 100% in-house products.
Their certificate for ecologic distinction attests to their commitment to environmental best practices.
The entire Girlboss website is simply inspiring.
The brand aims to redefine success for millennial women – by providing the tools and connections they need to own their futures.
Girlboss empowers them by providing the tools and connections they need to own their futures.
Furthermore, every bit of content you’ll find on this site oozes with passion, humor, and resourcefulness.
These key traits are sewn into the fabric of Girlboss’ global success.
If you want people to understand your company’s values, then put them in bold black and white print – just like Purple, Rock, Scissors did.
Their entire website is a technological marvel.
With its quaint background animation, concise content, and creative visuals, this page is definitely an eye-catcher.
There’s also an openness about it that will unfailingly draw you in.
It’s not often that you see an About page that puts so much emphasis on its “meet the team” section.
Each member is portrayed with a short description and an almost full-body shot, complete with their social media accounts.
Boasting big, bold elements and sharp colors, this page excels at making a great first impression.
There are many things we love about this website, but for brevity’s sake, we’ll narrow it down to two.
First, their main page is highly interactive.
The simple act of pushing a key or moving the mouse reveals a key piece of info about the brand. Because of that, it feels like watching a modern silent movie.
The second thing is the way 6tematik introduces us to its team.
Each member is portrayed by a minimalist caricature that is defined by one obvious trait. Some have long pink hair, others a bushy beard or big glasses.
These traits add a touch of personality to each member’s portrait, without giving too much away.
Made by artists for artists, Big Cartel is an online platform that makes it easy to build and manage an online store.
The simple yet impactful mission statement and the candid employee photographs make this About page refreshingly different.
Each photo in the gallery is unique and personal.
As a result, you won’t find any staged or boring ID-badge-type photos – just a wonderful display of diversity.
Final Takeaways
After analyzing in detail the 25 examples of About Us pages in this article, these are the final takeaways to keep in mind when crafting yours:
Creativity makes your page stand out.
For many companies, the About Us page is just a formality to fill in the sitemap rather than convey a unique marketing message.
However, some brands go beyond, designing eye-catching imagery and writing humorous copy to stand out from the competition. You need to find your unique angle for your About Us page to actually be read.
Feature the people behind the brand.
Whether you are a solopreneur, a dynamic duo agency, or a full-blown global enterprise with hundreds of team members, letting people shine makes an engaging About Us page.
Some of the examples in this article (such as Big Cartel), feature headshots packed with personality, which convey brand values better than any words.
Tie in social proof with your social responsibility.
Showcase results, but also convey the difference your organization is bringing to the world.
Yellow Leaf Hammocks and Mailchimp are two examples from this article that feature on their About Us page how their products are changing their communities for the better.
More resources:
Featured Image: Naumova Marina/Shutterstock
SEO
2024 WordPress Vulnerability Report Shows Errors Sites Keep Making
WordPress security scanner WPScan’s 2024 WordPress vulnerability report calls attention to WordPress vulnerability trends and suggests the kinds of things website publishers (and SEOs) should be looking out for.
Some of the key findings from the report were that just over 20% of vulnerabilities were rated as high or critical level threats, with medium severity threats, at 67% of reported vulnerabilities, making up the majority. Many regard medium level vulnerabilities as if they are low-level threats and that’s a mistake because they’re not low level and should be regarded as deserving attention.
The WPScan report advised:
“While severity doesn’t translate directly to the risk of exploitation, it’s an important guideline for website owners to make an educated decision about when to disable or update the extension.”
WordPress Vulnerability Severity Distribution
Critical level vulnerabilities, the highest level of threat, represented only 2.38% of vulnerabilities, which is essentially good news for WordPress publishers. Yet as mentioned earlier, when combined with the percentages of high level threats (17.68%) the number or concerning vulnerabilities rises to almost 20%.
Here are the percentages by severity ratings:
- Critical 2.38%
- Low 12.83%
- High 17.68%
- Medium 67.12%
Authenticated Versus Unauthenticated
Authenticated vulnerabilities are those that require an attacker to first attain user credentials and their accompanying permission levels in order to exploit a particular vulnerability. Exploits that require subscriber-level authentication are the most exploitable of the authenticated exploits and those that require administrator level access present the least risk (although not always a low risk for a variety of reasons).
Unauthenticated attacks are generally the easiest to exploit because anyone can launch an attack without having to first acquire a user credential.
The WPScan vulnerability report found that about 22% of reported vulnerabilities required subscriber level or no authentication at all, representing the most exploitable vulnerabilities. On the other end of the scale of the exploitability are vulnerabilities requiring admin permission levels representing a total of 30.71% of reported vulnerabilities.
Permission Levels Required For Exploits
Vulnerabilities requiring administrator level credentials represented the highest percentage of exploits, followed by Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) with 24.74% of vulnerabilities. This is interesting because CSRF is an attack that uses social engineering to get a victim to click a link from which the user’s permission levels are acquired. This is a mistake that WordPress publishers should be aware of because all it takes is for an admin level user to follow a link which then enables the hacker to assume admin level privileges to the WordPress website.
The following is the percentages of exploits ordered by roles necessary to launch an attack.
Ascending Order Of User Roles For Vulnerabilities
- Author 2.19%
- Subscriber 10.4%
- Unauthenticated 12.35%
- Contributor 19.62%
- CSRF 24.74%
- Admin 30.71%
Most Common Vulnerability Types Requiring Minimal Authentication
Broken Access Control in the context of WordPress refers to a security failure that can allow an attacker without necessary permission credentials to gain access to higher credential permissions.
In the section of the report that looks at the occurrences and vulnerabilities underlying unauthenticated or subscriber level vulnerabilities reported (Occurrence vs Vulnerability on Unauthenticated or Subscriber+ reports), WPScan breaks down the percentages for each vulnerability type that is most common for exploits that are the easiest to launch (because they require minimal to no user credential authentication).
The WPScan threat report noted that Broken Access Control represents a whopping 84.99% followed by SQL injection (20.64%).
The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) defines Broken Access Control as:
“Access control, sometimes called authorization, is how a web application grants access to content and functions to some users and not others. These checks are performed after authentication, and govern what ‘authorized’ users are allowed to do.
Access control sounds like a simple problem but is insidiously difficult to implement correctly. A web application’s access control model is closely tied to the content and functions that the site provides. In addition, the users may fall into a number of groups or roles with different abilities or privileges.”
SQL injection, at 20.64% represents the second most prevalent type of vulnerability, which WPScan referred to as both “high severity and risk” in the context of vulnerabilities requiring minimal authentication levels because attackers can access and/or tamper with the database which is the heart of every WordPress website.
These are the percentages:
- Broken Access Control 84.99%
- SQL Injection 20.64%
- Cross-Site Scripting 9.4%
- Unauthenticated Arbitrary File Upload 5.28%
- Sensitive Data Disclosure 4.59%
- Insecure Direct Object Reference (IDOR) 3.67%
- Remote Code Execution 2.52%
- Other 14.45%
Vulnerabilities In The WordPress Core Itself
The overwhelming majority of vulnerability issues were reported in third-party plugins and themes. However, there were in 2023 a total of 13 vulnerabilities reported in the WordPress core itself. Out of the thirteen vulnerabilities only one of them was rated as a high severity threat, which is the second highest level, with Critical being the highest level vulnerability threat, a rating scoring system maintained by the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
The WordPress core platform itself is held to the highest standards and benefits from a worldwide community that is vigilant in discovering and patching vulnerabilities.
Website Security Should Be Considered As Technical SEO
Site audits don’t normally cover website security but in my opinion every responsible audit should at least talk about security headers. As I’ve been saying for years, website security quickly becomes an SEO issue once a website’s ranking start disappearing from the search engine results pages (SERPs) due to being compromised by a vulnerability. That’s why it’s critical to be proactive about website security.
According to the WPScan report, the main point of entry for hacked websites were leaked credentials and weak passwords. Ensuring strong password standards plus two-factor authentication is an important part of every website’s security stance.
Using security headers is another way to help protect against Cross-Site Scripting and other kinds of vulnerabilities.
Lastly, a WordPress firewall and website hardening are also useful proactive approaches to website security. I once added a forum to a brand new website I created and it was immediately under attack within minutes. Believe it or not, virtually every website worldwide is under attack 24 hours a day by bots scanning for vulnerabilities.
Read the WPScan Report:
WPScan 2024 Website Threat Report
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Ljupco Smokovski
SEO
An In-Depth Guide And Best Practices For Mobile SEO
Over the years, search engines have encouraged businesses to improve mobile experience on their websites. More than 60% of web traffic comes from mobile, and in some cases based on the industry, mobile traffic can reach up to 90%.
Since Google has completed its switch to mobile-first indexing, the question is no longer “if” your website should be optimized for mobile, but how well it is adapted to meet these criteria. A new challenge has emerged for SEO professionals with the introduction of Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which replaced First Input Delay (FID) starting March, 12 2024.
Thus, understanding mobile SEO’s latest advancements, especially with the shift to INP, is crucial. This guide offers practical steps to optimize your site effectively for today’s mobile-focused SEO requirements.
What Is Mobile SEO And Why Is It Important?
The goal of mobile SEO is to optimize your website to attain better visibility in search engine results specifically tailored for mobile devices.
This form of SEO not only aims to boost search engine rankings, but also prioritizes enhancing mobile user experience through both content and technology.
While, in many ways, mobile SEO and traditional SEO share similar practices, additional steps related to site rendering and content are required to meet the needs of mobile users and the speed requirements of mobile devices.
Does this need to be a priority for your website? How urgent is it?
Consider this: 58% of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile devices.
If you aren’t focused on mobile users, there is a good chance you’re missing out on a tremendous amount of traffic.
Mobile-First Indexing
Additionally, as of 2023, Google has switched its crawlers to a mobile-first indexing priority.
This means that the mobile experience of your site is critical to maintaining efficient indexing, which is the step before ranking algorithms come into play.
Read more: Where We Are Today With Google’s Mobile-First Index
How Much Of Your Traffic Is From Mobile?
How much traffic potential you have with mobile users can depend on various factors, including your industry (B2B sites might attract primarily desktop users, for example) and the search intent your content addresses (users might prefer desktop for larger purchases, for example).
Regardless of where your industry and the search intent of your users might be, the future will demand that you optimize your site experience for mobile devices.
How can you assess your current mix of mobile vs. desktop users?
An easy way to see what percentage of your users is on mobile is to go into Google Analytics 4.
- Click Reports in the left column.
- Click on the Insights icon on the right side of the screen.
- Scroll down to Suggested Questions and click on it.
- Click on Technology.
- Click on Top Device model by Users.
- Then click on Top Device category by Users under Related Results.
- The breakdown of Top Device category will match the date range selected at the top of GA4.
You can also set up a report in Looker Studio.
- Add your site to the Data source.
- Add Device category to the Dimension field.
- Add 30-day active users to the Metric field.
- Click on Chart to select the view that works best for you.
You can add more Dimensions to really dig into the data to see which pages attract which type of users, what the mobile-to-desktop mix is by country, which search engines send the most mobile users, and so much more.
Read more: Why Mobile And Desktop Rankings Are Different
How To Check If Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
Now that you know how to build a report on mobile and desktop usage, you need to figure out if your site is optimized for mobile traffic.
While Google removed the mobile-friendly testing tool from Google Search Console in December 2023, there are still a number of useful tools for evaluating your site for mobile users.
Bing still has a mobile-friendly testing tool that will tell you the following:
- Viewport is configured correctly.
- Page content fits device width.
- Text on the page is readable.
- Links and tap targets are sufficiently large and touch-friendly.
- Any other issues detected.
Google’s Lighthouse Chrome extension provides you with an evaluation of your site’s performance across several factors, including load times, accessibility, and SEO.
To use, install the Lighthouse Chrome extension.
- Go to your website in your browser.
- Click on the orange lighthouse icon in your browser’s address bar.
- Click Generate Report.
- A new tab will open and display your scores once the evaluation is complete.
You can also use the Lighthouse report in Developer Tools in Chrome.
- Simply click on the three dots next to the address bar.
- Select “More Tools.”
- Select Developer Tools.
- Click on the Lighthouse tab.
- Choose “Mobile” and click the “Analyze page load” button.
Another option that Google offers is the PageSpeed Insights (PSI) tool. Simply add your URL into the field and click Analyze.
PSI will integrate any Core Web Vitals scores into the resulting view so you can see what your users are experiencing when they come to your site.
Other tools, like WebPageTest.org, will graphically display the processes and load times for everything it takes to display your webpages.
With this information, you can see which processes block the loading of your pages, which ones take the longest to load, and how this affects your overall page load times.
You can also emulate the mobile experience by using Developer Tools in Chrome, which allows you to switch back and forth between a desktop and mobile experience.
Lastly, use your own mobile device to load and navigate your website:
- Does it take forever to load?
- Are you able to navigate your site to find the most important information?
- Is it easy to add something to cart?
- Can you read the text?
Read more: Google PageSpeed Insights Reports: A Technical Guide
How To Optimize Your Site Mobile-First
With all these tools, keep an eye on the Performance and Accessibility scores, as these directly affect mobile users.
Expand each section within the PageSpeed Insights report to see what elements are affecting your score.
These sections can give your developers their marching orders for optimizing the mobile experience.
While mobile speeds for cellular networks have steadily improved around the world (the average speed in the U.S. has jumped to 27.06 Mbps from 11.14 Mbps in just eight years), speed and usability for mobile users are at a premium.
Read more: Top 7 SEO Benefits Of Responsive Web Design
Best Practices For Mobile Optimization
Unlike traditional SEO, which can focus heavily on ensuring that you are using the language of your users as it relates to the intersection of your products/services and their needs, optimizing for mobile SEO can seem very technical SEO-heavy.
While you still need to be focused on matching your content with the needs of the user, mobile search optimization will require the aid of your developers and designers to be fully effective.
Below are several key factors in mobile SEO to keep in mind as you’re optimizing your site.
Site Rendering
How your site responds to different devices is one of the most important elements in mobile SEO.
The two most common approaches to this are responsive design and dynamic serving.
Responsive design is the most common of the two options.
Using your site’s cascading style sheets (CSS) and flexible layouts, as well as responsive content delivery networks (CDN) and modern image file types, responsive design allows your site to adjust to a variety of screen sizes, orientations, and resolutions.
With the responsive design, elements on the page adjust in size and location based on the size of the screen.
You can simply resize the window of your desktop browser and see how this works.
This is the approach that Google recommends.
Adaptive design, also known as dynamic serving, consists of multiple fixed layouts that are dynamically served to the user based on their device.
Sites can have a separate layout for desktop, smartphone, and tablet users. Each design can be modified to remove functionality that may not make sense for certain device types.
This is a less efficient approach, but it does give sites more control over what each device sees.
While these will not be covered here, two other options:
- Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which can seamlessly integrate into a mobile app.
- Separate mobile site/URL (which is no longer recommended).
Read more: An Introduction To Rendering For SEO
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Google has introduced Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as a more comprehensive measure of user experience, succeeding First Input Delay. While FID measures the time from when a user first interacts with your page (e.g., clicking a link, tapping a button) to the time when the browser is actually able to begin processing event handlers in response to that interaction. INP, on the other hand, broadens the scope by measuring the responsiveness of a website throughout the entire lifespan of a page, not just first interaction.
Note that actions such as hovering and scrolling do not influence INP, however, keyboard-driven scrolling or navigational actions are considered keystrokes that may activate events measured by INP but not scrolling which is happeing due to interaction.
Scrolling may indirectly affect INP, for example in scenarios where users scroll through content, and additional content is lazy-loaded from the API. While the act of scrolling itself isn’t included in the INP calculation, the processing, necessary for loading additional content, can create contention on the main thread, thereby increasing interaction latency and adversely affecting the INP score.
What qualifies as an optimal INP score?
- An INP under 200ms indicates good responsiveness.
- Between 200ms and 500ms needs improvement.
- Over 500ms means page has poor responsiveness.
and these are common issues causing poor INP scores:
- Long JavaScript Tasks: Heavy JavaScript execution can block the main thread, delaying the browser’s ability to respond to user interactions. Thus break long JS tasks into smaller chunks by using scheduler API.
- Large DOM (HTML) Size: A large DOM ( starting from 1500 elements) can severely impact a website’s interactive performance. Every additional DOM element increases the work required to render pages and respond to user interactions.
- Inefficient Event Callbacks: Event handlers that execute lengthy or complex operations can significantly affect INP scores. Poorly optimized callbacks attached to user interactions, like clicks, keypress or taps, can block the main thread, delaying the browser’s ability to render visual feedback promptly. For example when handlers perform heavy computations or initiate synchronous network requests such on clicks.
and you can troubleshoot INP issues using free and paid tools.
As a good starting point I would recommend to check your INP scores by geos via treo.sh which will give you a great high level insights where you struggle with most.
Read more: How To Improve Interaction To Next Paint (INP)
Image Optimization
Images add a lot of value to the content on your site and can greatly affect the user experience.
From page speeds to image quality, you could adversely affect the user experience if you haven’t optimized your images.
This is especially true for the mobile experience. Images need to adjust to smaller screens, varying resolutions, and screen orientation.
- Use responsive images
- Implement lazy loading
- Compress your images (use WebP)
- Add your images into sitemap
Optimizing images is an entire science, and I advise you to read our comprehensive guide on image SEO how to implement the mentioned recommendations.
Avoid Intrusive Interstitials
Google rarely uses concrete language to state that something is a ranking factor or will result in a penalty, so you know it means business about intrusive interstitials in the mobile experience.
Intrusive interstitials are basically pop-ups on a page that prevent the user from seeing content on the page.
John Mueller, Google’s Senior Search Analyst, stated that they are specifically interested in the first interaction a user has after clicking on a search result.
Not all pop-ups are considered bad. Interstitial types that are considered “intrusive” by Google include:
- Pop-ups that cover most or all of the page content.
- Non-responsive interstitials or pop-ups that are impossible for mobile users to close.
- Pop-ups that are not triggered by a user action, such as a scroll or a click.
Read more: 7 Tips To Keep Pop-Ups From Harming Your SEO
Structured Data
Most of the tips provided in this guide so far are focused on usability and speed and have an additive effect, but there are changes that can directly influence how your site appears in mobile search results.
Search engine results pages (SERPs) haven’t been the “10 blue links” in a very long time.
They now reflect the diversity of search intent, showing a variety of different sections to meet the needs of users. Local Pack, shopping listing ads, video content, and more dominate the mobile search experience.
As a result, it’s more important than ever to provide structured data markup to the search engines, so they can display rich results for users.
In this example, you can see that both Zojirushi and Amazon have included structured data for their rice cookers, and Google is displaying rich results for both.
Adding structured data markup to your site can influence how well your site shows up for local searches and product-related searches.
Using JSON-LD, you can mark up the business, product, and services data on your pages in Schema markup.
If you use WordPress as the content management system for your site, there are several plugins available that will automatically mark up your content with structured data.
Read more: What Structured Data To Use And Where To Use It?
Content Style
When you think about your mobile users and the screens on their devices, this can greatly influence how you write your content.
Rather than long, detailed paragraphs, mobile users prefer concise writing styles for mobile reading.
Each key point in your content should be a single line of text that easily fits on a mobile screen.
Your font sizes should adjust to the screen’s resolution to avoid eye strain for your users.
If possible, allow for a dark or dim mode for your site to further reduce eye strain.
Headers should be concise and address the searcher’s intent. Rather than lengthy section headers, keep it simple.
Finally, make sure that your text renders in a font size that’s readable.
Read more: 10 Tips For Creating Mobile-Friendly Content
Tap Targets
As important as text size, the tap targets on your pages should be sized and laid out appropriately.
Tap targets include navigation elements, links, form fields, and buttons like “Add to Cart” buttons.
Targets smaller than 48 pixels by 48 pixels and targets that overlap or are overlapped by other page elements will be called out in the Lighthouse report.
Tap targets are essential to the mobile user experience, especially for ecommerce websites, so optimizing them is vital to the health of your online business.
Read more: Google’s Lighthouse SEO Audit Tool Now Measures Tap Target Spacing
Prioritizing These Tips
If you have delayed making your site mobile-friendly until now, this guide may feel overwhelming. As a result, you may not know what to prioritize first.
As with so many other optimizations in SEO, it’s important to understand which changes will have the greatest impact, and this is just as true for mobile SEO.
Think of SEO as a framework in which your site’s technical aspects are the foundation of your content. Without a solid foundation, even the best content may struggle to rank.
- Responsive or Dynamic Rendering: If your site requires the user to zoom and scroll right or left to read the content on your pages, no number of other optimizations can help you. This should be first on your list.
- Content Style: Rethink how your users will consume your content online. Avoid very long paragraphs. “Brevity is the soul of wit,” to quote Shakespeare.
- Image Optimization: Begin migrating your images to next-gen image formats and optimize your content display network for speed and responsiveness.
- Tap Targets: A site that prevents users from navigating or converting into sales won’t be in business long. Make navigation, links, and buttons usable for them.
- Structured Data: While this element ranks last in priority on this list, rich results can improve your chances of receiving traffic from a search engine, so add this to your to-do list once you’ve completed the other optimizations.
Summary
From How Search Works, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
If Google’s primary mission is focused on making all the world’s information accessible and useful, then you know they will prefer surfacing sites that align with that vision.
Since a growing percentage of users are on mobile devices, you may want to infer the word “everywhere” added to the end of the mission statement.
Are you missing out on traffic from mobile devices because of a poor mobile experience?
If you hope to remain relevant, make mobile SEO a priority now.
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
SEO
HARO Has Been Dead for a While
I know nothing about the new tool. I haven’t tried it. But after trying to use HARO recently, I can’t say I’m surprised or saddened by its death. It’s been a walking corpse for a while.
I used HARO way back in the day to build links. It worked. But a couple of months ago, I experienced the platform from the other side when I decided to try to source some “expert” insights for our posts.
After just a few minutes of work, I got hundreds of pitches:
So, I grabbed a cup of coffee and began to work through them. It didn’t take long before I lost the will to live. Every other pitch seemed like nothing more than lazy AI-generated nonsense from someone who definitely wasn’t an expert.
Here’s one of them:
Seriously. Who writes like that? I’m a self-confessed dullard (any fellow Dull Men’s Club members here?), and even I’m not that dull…
I don’t think I looked through more than 30-40 of the responses. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It felt like having a conversation with ChatGPT… and not a very good one!
Despite only reviewing a few dozen of the many pitches I received, one stood out to me:
Believe it or not, this response came from a past client of mine who runs an SEO agency in the UK. Given how knowledgeable and experienced he is (he actually taught me a lot about SEO back in the day when I used to hassle him with questions on Skype), this pitch rang alarm bells for two reasons:
- I truly doubt he spends his time replying to HARO queries
- I know for a fact he’s no fan of Neil Patel (sorry, Neil, but I’m sure you’re aware of your reputation at this point!)
So… I decided to confront him 😉
Here’s what he said:
Shocker.
I pressed him for more details:
I’m getting a really good deal and paying per link rather than the typical £xxxx per month for X number of pitches. […] The responses as you’ve seen are not ideal but that’s a risk I’m prepared to take as realistically I dont have the time to do it myself. He’s not native english, but I have had to have a word with him a few times about clearly using AI. On the low cost ones I don’t care but on authority sites it needs to be more refined.
I think this pretty much sums up the state of HARO before its death. Most “pitches” were just AI answers from SEOs trying to build links for their clients.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not throwing shade here. I know that good links are hard to come by, so you have to do what works. And the reality is that HARO did work. Just look at the example below. You can tell from the anchor and surrounding text in Ahrefs that these links were almost certainly built with HARO:
But this was the problem. HARO worked so well back in the day that it was only a matter of time before spammers and the #scale crew ruined it for everyone. That’s what happened, and now HARO is no more. So…
If you’re a link builder, I think it’s time to admit that HARO link building is dead and move on.
No tactic works well forever. It’s the law of sh**ty clickthroughs. This is why you don’t see SEOs having huge success with tactics like broken link building anymore. They’ve moved on to more innovative tactics or, dare I say it, are just buying links.
Sidenote.
Talking of buying links, here’s something to ponder: if Connectively charges for pitches, are links built through those pitches technically paid? If so, do they violate Google’s spam policies? It’s a murky old world this SEO lark, eh?
If you’re a journalist, Connectively might be worth a shot. But with experts being charged for pitches, you probably won’t get as many responses. That might be a good thing. You might get less spam. Or you might just get spammed by SEOs with deep pockets. The jury’s out for now.
My advice? Look for alternative methods like finding and reaching out to experts directly. You can easily use tools like Content Explorer to find folks who’ve written lots of content about the topic and are likely to be experts.
For example, if you look for content with “backlinks” in the title and go to the Authors tab, you might see a familiar name. 😉
I don’t know if I’d call myself an expert, but I’d be happy to give you a quote if you reached out on social media or emailed me (here’s how to find my email address).
Alternatively, you can bait your audience into giving you their insights on social media. I did this recently with a poll on X and included many of the responses in my guide to toxic backlinks.
Either of these options is quicker than using HARO because you don’t have to sift through hundreds of responses looking for a needle in a haystack. If you disagree with me and still love HARO, feel free to tell me why on X 😉
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