Roughly 63% of all Google searches are performed on mobile devices. This large mobile audience has led to the team at Google implementing a mobile-first indexing algorithm. What this means is that the mobile version of your website is what Google will use when ranking it on the search engine results page. Websites that fail to optimize for mobile-first indexing will surely see their rank fall, which can affect their ability to attract new customers.
Rather than allowing your website to fall to the bottom of the search engine results page, you need to work hard to ensure your website is optimized for this type of mobile indexing. Here are some things you can do to accomplish this goal.
1. Consider Google’s Recommendations For Mobile-First Optimization
When trying to optimize your website for mobile-first indexing, you need to consider going straight to the source for information. Over the years, Google has done a slow rollout of the mobile-first indexing algorithm. During this rollout, a number of optimization tips have come straight from this search engine juggernaut. Among the most important things you need to keep in mind when trying to achieve mobile dominance on Google are:
- Consider and implement Best Ads Standard from Google. This will help you drive mobile traffic to your website with the help of Google Ads.
- Check image best practices to ensure your images are seen and recognized by the mobile-first algorithm.
- Make sure the same metadata is on your mobile and desktop website.
- Verify separate URLs for your mobile and desktop sites on Google Search Console. During this verification process, be sure to avoid fragmented URLs.
With this information, you can start the process of optimizing your website for mobile-first indexing.
2. The Same Content Needs To Be On Your Desktop and Mobile Site
Some business owners make the mistake of putting less content on their mobile websites. Google has clearly stated that websites that intentionally have less content on their mobile pages will lose traffic when indexed. Not only do you need to put the same content on your mobile site, you also need to check to ensure the headers aren’t changed. The team at Google has given specific advice to website owners that changing headers on content could work against them, which is why this practice should be avoided.
3. Check For Mobile Errors
Another important thing you need to check and fix when needed is mobile errors. In the Google Search Console, you can generate Coverage and Mobile usability reports. These reports will give you a breakdown of how well your website is performing for mobile users. If you don’t know how to access this report or fix the errors it may contain, then you need to work with an SEO professional. With this help, you can keep your website functional and accessible for mobile users.
4. Prioritize Page Load Speed
The people browsing your website on a mobile device are quite impatient. If a page on your website takes longer than expected to load, mobile users might lose interest and leave. Not only do mobile users consider page load speed, the Google algorithm does as well.
It is important to test your website to see how fast it loads on a mobile device. If you feel your website is loading slowly, consider doing things like:
- Reduce the number of redirects
- Use browser caching
- Make your CSS code compact
- Compress image file sizes
- Lower server response time
With these changes, you can make your website much faster for mobile users.
5. Improve On-Page SEO
Page titles and descriptions are one of the first things a mobile user will see on a search results page. Most business owners fail to realize that mobile SERPs provide less room than desktop SERPs. Google will cut off any text beyond 120 characters.
This means you need to trim the fat from your page titles and descriptions. By doing this, you can rest assured that mobile users can make sense of this data when it is presented on a search results page.
6. Local SEO is Important
Did you realize that the majority of searches performed by mobile users have local intent? This is why you need to make sure the location of your business is mentioned in places like:
- Image alt tags
- Meta titles
- URLs
- Meta descriptions
- Blogs
You also need to make sure that all of your business name, address, and phone number listings match your Google My Business profile.
If your main goal is to take your website to the top of Google search engine results pages, then it’s time to find out more about the services offered by Small Business SEO.