Sidebar & Footer Tips for Search Engine Optimisation for Mobile Websites

Did you know Google penalizes sites if you overly use the side bar for building keyword links?

Search Engine Optimisation for the footer and sidebar aren’t something that every website owner looks at. While mobile friendly websites, don’t always load a sidebar when viewed on a device, it’s still important for the off-device version in terms of its SEO. Don’t be penalised by Google for keyword stuffing across pages because of the shared sidebar.

The solution is not that complex…..
Try to make your side bar keywords more generic but still related to your website. It takes common sense here not to overly stuff your side menus and side bars with keywords. This also applies to site footer links and footer menus.

A short video on SEO tips for additional help with your mobile website optimisation in 2016.


Using this tactic seems to be working for many mobile site owners.

Let’s understand what is happening when your website is crawled, from the perspective of the search engines.

If your main keywords are placed within your sidebar(s) then because of the way the site is structured these keywords will show up on EVERY page that the side bar is linked to within your site. Remember that it’s a shared sidebar or common sidebar, showing on every page. As a result Google is actually penalising sites that do this.

Don’t make the same mistake when you consider your side bars and the content you have in them.

Contact us for developing your mobile friendly website to ensure that your website doesn’t incur unnecessary penalties.