How to make your website compatible with Google’s Mobile-First Index

Google has started rolling out its mobile-first index, which is a direct change to one of the biggest changes in user behavior. The change is not unexpected, as over the past two years, surveys and research have revealed that mobile devices account for approximately fifty-seven percent of all traffic. This move by Google means that mobile-optimized websites will take precedence over desktop-only websites in terms of ranking. Once the index changes completely, the mobile version of the websites will become the main version. To benefit from this development, search marketers need to be very vigilant in making sure that their websites are fully optimized for mobile devices.

Here are helpful tips for Search Engine Optimizers to help them take advantage of the mobile-first age.

Observe Google’s crawl activity

When your website has moved to the mobile first index, you will receive a notification from Google through your search console. However, you should collect more detailed information about the search giant’s crawling activity. By monitoring log file data, you can find out how search engine robots access your website. In case you find that there is more activity from mobile devices than on your desktop counterpart, you will have to work on making your website mobile friendly or you will lose end users to the competition. Since Google performs various tests and the data it gets may not be conclusive, you can hire search engine optimization services and ask the experts to keep a close eye on your website activities.

Develop content for mobile devices

Companies with responsive websites have very little to do in mobile-first index preparation, but only if their content is tailored to a mobile audience. In case you have the same content on multiple devices, there is no guarantee that your site’s ranking will remain the same. In fact, research suggests that keywords yield different results on desktop and mobile. This means that consumers expect different content on different devices. For smartphones and other mobile devices, you need to create content that helps users achieve their goal quickly. You can integrate Progressive Web Apps into your mobile content strategy to give your consumers a fast experience.

Understanding the journey of a mobile user

On mobile, the audience’s attention span is even shorter than on desktop. Therefore, you must have a solid understanding of micro-moments. When your audience is on mobile, you basically get very short windows of opportunity to engage with consumers. To make the most of this opportunity, you need a powerful data-driven strategy, like perhaps a voice search strategy, since it targets certain micro-moments. If studying consumer behavior is too much of a task, you may want to hire the services of a professional SEO agency, as they have the tools and experience to instantly provide you with the answers you are looking for.

Cover technical SEO best practices

To prepare for the mobile index first, you need to follow certain technical SEO best practices, which are:

1. Verify that your website is a mobile site in Google Search Console by adding the robots.txt file. Your site should have an “m”. to be a mobile site.

2. Review the metadata to see if you can further optimize it for a higher CTR (click through rate) on mobile.

3. Run a speed test to make sure your mobile site isn’t slow. In case it is, you should take appropriate steps to optimize and speed up its speed.

You can no longer delay having a mobile website. So, get in touch with expert SEO agencies and improve your chances of ranking.