Businesses can generate more sales thru the specialised services of a reputable SEO agency. Because most people use mobile devices, most businesses have changed their tactics. Besides improving their products, they also focus on developing their website rankings. This can easily grab the attention of more customers. Strategic marketers have also switched gears. They have been prioritising mobile content of websites that generate top Google rankings. It’s all in the process of mobile-first indexing.
Through mobile-first indexing, Google prioritises a website’s mobile version. They crawl, rank, and index them over desktop versions. But what can be done to give users the best experience through their mobile devices?
Continue reading the details below to know several of the most acceptable mobile-first indexing practices.
1. Site interactivity
Small, interactive buttons are suitable for desktop sites because visitors can click them with a mouse. Mobile devices, on the other hand, necessitate a slightly different approach. Mobile pages require larger buttons that are easier for fingers to click on. This requires customising the layout to help users scroll through and click with ease.
2. Image and Video Availability
An experienced specialist from an SEO agency continuously checks on the video and image visibility and accessibility for mobile devices. Suppose your video player isn’t responsive and mobile-friendly. In that case, the video may load in full-screen mode, making it too large for people to view. To test this, simply load your site on a mobile phone and personally see your content before making any changes.
3. Equip Your Mobile Site with Primary Content
In the mobile-first index, Google views your mobile site as the primary source of content. So for a responsive site, you won’t see any fluctuations in rankings once the switch happens. In this ideal scenario, the user will adapt to any device they’re on since you’ll use only one URL. Before fixing unresponsive sites, a tech expert from an online SEO agency ensures that a website’s primary content exists on mobile devices. Google releases guidelines and routinely makes about 500-600 tweaks every year, all of which you should adhere to.
4. Speed up your site
There are several strategies to consider to be ready for the mobile-first index. When it comes to conversions and overall user experience, an SEO agency for small business would suggest starting with site speed that focuses on mobile.
5. Consider the checkout process on mobile
85% of customers start a purchase on one device and finish it on another (or in-store), based on statistics released by Think with Google. How can we go beyond that and develop a better mobile checkout process? Streamlining your checkout experience, particularly on mobile devices, is a terrific method to speed up and minimise conversion hurdles.
6. Don’t block CSS, JavaScript, or images
When mobile design initially emerged, it was advantageous to restrict some resources, such as CSS, JavaScript, and pictures. Some of these elements could frequently cause delayed loading and display issues. Therefore it made more sense to conceal them from GoogleBot on mobile.
Today, however, the landscape has changed. Smartphones are, in many cases, more powerful than the computers owned by users. These phones are regarded smart as they have faster processors, more memory, and more capacity. Google’s smartphone GoogleBot can also handle all of these elements. So if they can take it, make sure you show them everything. That way, Google can categorise your content and rank it appropriately.
7. Consider XML Sitemap and robots.txt
Teams from an online SEO agency guarantee that all the links to a business’ XML Sitemap are accessible from the mobile version of their site. These files lead Google to all your important pages, so it’s crucial that crawlers can find them. Robots.txt directives are used to inform crawlers of which areas of the site may be crawled or not. Make sure you control them on both versions of your site.
8. Don’t forget about hreflang links
Hreflang attributes are used to tell Google you’re using different languages for different pages. They help search engines provide users searching in a specific language with relevant results. If you use ‘rel=hreflang’ on the mobile version of your site, make sure you separate it from the desktop one. Teams from an SEO agency for small business ensure that a mobile page’s hreflang matches up with the mobile URL, while the desktop page’s hreflang matches with a desktop URL.
9. Prioritise content
Your mobile content is prioritised thru mobile-first indexing. For this, you should provide a clear structure of your texts. Being constantly in a rush, mobile users prefer easy-to-consume information. Dividing your texts into paragraphs make them more catchy and readable.
Using expandable menus is also advisable. Remember how Google crawls all the content hidden in dropdowns on mobile? You save the limited screen size and improve user experience by utilising hamburger and accordion menus.
The tips mentioned above had been tried and tested by experts from a notable SEO agency. Such may require several changes, but businesses would rise above the rest if they have highly responsive websites. Establishing a mobile website is undoubtedly one of the smartest moves to make. When considered early on, entrepreneurs would have plenty of time optimising their websites. Mobile-first indexing is an area Google had been strict on. Thus, tech specialists must install these proven methods. This would guarantee that a website can outweigh hundreds of others in rankings.