By now, you know that Google made a move to a mobile-first search index. However, if you have not taken steps to optimize your site for mobile devices, you may be in trouble. Now is the time to take stock of what is going on with your website and make adjustments to ensure your ongoing success.
Responsive Design Is a Must
There are a few ways you can make your site ready for mobile users. One of the most important things you can do is create a site with a responsive design. This means your site lives on a single URL, making it much easier for Google to index and understand it.
If your site was designed with WordPress, there’s a good chance it is responsive and will adapt to any size screen. If your site doesn’t scale properly, you need to speak to your web developer or pick a new theme.
Site Speed
Something important you can do to help improve your mobile SEO for your website is improving the load speed. Many studies have shown that people will bounce away from sites that take too long to load. Usually, they never come back. Speed is a serious ranking factor and something that Google is focused on resolving.
Image Optimization
A fast and easy way to improve your website’s speed is by optimizing your images. You should never load images that are too big on your site. Instead, make sure to scale them to an appropriate size. You can also make them smaller using one of the readily available tools online.
Minify Code
Each request on your website will impact site speed. You have to find a way to reduce these requests. An effective way to do this is by minifying code. This is a process that will concatenate assets, such as CSS and JavaScript. The result is that the browser does not have to load as many files, making your site faster. While this may be more challenging to implement, there are tools that can help you.
Browser Caching
With browser caching, you let the browser know that the page elements do not change often and can be saved in the cache. This lets the browser download dynamic and new content when someone visits again. You can do this on your own or use a tool to make it possible.
Reduce Total Redirects
Redirects will take visitors from one page you requested to another. This is because the requested page was deleted or moved. While this will provide a much better user experience when done properly, it will make your website slower if you use too many redirects. Do not create too many redirects. You should also avoid keeping links around that lead to a deleted post, and that is directed to a new one. Be sure to make direct links.
If you want to ensure your site is mobile-friendly and provides the results desired, use the tips and information here. This will pay off in the long run.