With ever-growing mobile users across the globe, search engines, especially Google has now more concerned about mobile-first indexing. Mobile-first indexing is not the very latest term but still, many business owners have not shifted towards it and they are surely missing many advantages of this update. In simple terms, when Google’s crawlers will visit your website, they will first crawl and prefer the mobile version of your site and later on, the desktop version.
This has come into the mainstream because a large chunk of users now access the Internet and browse multiple websites on their smartphones. So to improve the customer experience, Mobile SEO is the new thing that companies now should be focusing on.
But, this is also true that there are no two separate bots that cover the desktop version and the mobile version in different ways. It’s a kind of an enhancement over the previous crawling methods. On this note, let’s have a quick look at how to optimize your website for Google’s mobile-first indexing:
Speed is important
The first thing you need to take care of while doing mobile SEO is speed should be on your priority list while optimizing your website. Most people just run a speed test to check their website performance on the desktop version, but that’s not enough.
For better mobile-first indexing, focus on the speed that you are getting on multiple portable devices. Along with mobile phones, also do a test on tablets so you don’t miss out on any opportunity to drive more customers to your site.
For improving the speed, first, optimize all the images of your website. Be it featured images, banners, or HD images on a slider, make it compress as much as possible. This is because it will help the website to load faster on mobile devices. Along with this, make use of leverage browser cache for faster loading and try to minify code for optimum performance. These things can help you optimize your site to achieve higher speed on all devices.
Take care of redirects
Even in normal SEO, link redirection needs to be done with utter care to make sure the website doesn’t lose any juice due to this. And, when it comes to mobile-first indexing, you need to make sure all the redirects are properly implemented.
Too many redirects can hurt your website’s performance on mobile phones and tablets. Along with redirect links, make sure there are no 404 links indexed. If you find a few, make sure you manage them using the search console.
It happens quite often that 404 links get indexed and appear on certain searches. This not only spoils the user experience but also increases the bounce rate of your site. Once in a while, while doing mobile SEO, always run a URL scan and analyze if anything needs to be fixed.
Avoid blocking CSS, JS, or even images
Earlier, people used to block resource-intensive elements like JS, CSS, or high-quality images from loading on smartphones. The reason was to give a faster experience to mobile users. But now, the whole scenario is changed and there is no need to block these elements from loading.
Nowadays, smartphones and other portable devices come with many powerful processors from earlier devices and they can handle these requests. And, Google along with other search bots also handle them with more efficiency.
Instead of blocking them, make sure you have minified them efficiently that no lag in loading is created due to excessive resources. If you don’t know how to minify them correctly, it’s always a smarter option to hire a Mobile SEO expert and get things done for your business.
Improve the mobile layout
When we are talking about mobile layout, it goes beyond responsiveness and speed. There are a few more extra things that you need to take care of while working on mobile optimization. The first to avoid is flash on mobile phones. It’s better to use advanced HTML elements or JS to enhance the browsing experience of viewers.
Along with this, avoid using too many pop-ups on the mobile version of your site. Pop-ups not only ruin the user experience but also makes it almost impossible to use the website on smaller screens. Also, make sure your website is fully responsive and there are no accidental touches while using it. Make the menu optimized for mobile devices.
Try to keep the interface as minimalistic as possible on the mobile version to serve the purpose to users faster and in a better way. Most people open websites on their smartphones for seeking important information like contact details, offers, or accessing some resources like PDFs. So it’s better to present that information in a straightforward way.
On-page optimization
Content optimization and formatting will play a pivotal role in making your website optimized for mobile devices. As the screen size is compact, keep the titles, headings, and paragraphs as to the point as possible. It really improves the reading experience and reduces the bounce rate.
As bots are now more efficient in understanding the context of the webpage, don’t overstuff the keywords for higher rankings. Just keep the content as human-oriented as possible and make your mobile SEO strategy stronger.
It has nothing to do with the content length and you are free to create the content of your style. Be it long-form content or short articles, but always ensure the information is to the point and accurate. The more relevant the information will be, the more visitors you will attract to your website.
With new updates and algorithm announcements, keeping up with every aspect is not possible. But, it’s important to ensure your website meets all the basic optimization parameters that we discussed above. Try to make your site as optimized as possible for the readers and it will automatically get optimized for the search engines including Google and Bing. Focus on driving more value to your readers and improve their user experience by giving them the required information as quickly and easily as possible.