The future of mobile optimisation

Mobile optimisation is not limited to having a responsive website. There is more to it than that. With the number of mobile searches far exceeding desktop, it was only a matter of time before Google stepped in.

Google’s Shift To Mobile-First Indexing

SEO is a crucial part of a marketing strategy. Having a website that is mobile friendly has always been very important.

As customer behaviour has changed, so has the way the search engine will index your website. In the past, Google would look at the aspects of your desktop site and then rank you based on relevance to a user’s search term. Now, they will instead be indexing your site, mobile-first.

Why Is Mobile-First Indexing Important?

It is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if you don’t have a responsive website, you should look at getting one sorted as soon as possible to avoid any major disruption.

Secondly, if you do have a responsive website, there are a few other key areas you need to consider. Mobile-first indexing comes with its own set of SEO rules that you should ideally start to adhere to.

3 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Mobile Optimisation

1. Speed is a big factor when optimising your mobile site.

Take a look at your website’s overall speed. This will give you an idea of which areas you should focus on. Usually, it will be the images on your pages that cause the biggest problem. It will be important for you to look at compressing them. However, they still need to work well on a desktop, so don’t overdo it with the resizing.

2. You should consider optimising the content you publish on your website. As attention spans are shorter on mobile devices, consider the micro-moments on your website and how you aim to engage users.

If you know that certain areas of your site see more mobile traffic than others, think about the structure of your content. Heat mapping could help with this. Something that we consider to be a necessity when designing a website and refining the customer journey.

Ultimately, try to ensure that you are delivering the best mobile experience possible. Any streamlining will be positive, both on Google, and for your customers.

3. Make sure you analyse the mobile data alongside your other metrics. This will help you to paint a picture of how users interact with your site. For example, you’ll be able to see variations in keyword data to assess whether you need to amend your targeted keywords for mobile users.

You may even want to start considering how important voice search is to your business. This is becoming important as we continue to see the rise of smart speakers and voice assistants. Many of which are linked to our mobile devices.

If you are considering a new website and ongoing mobile optimisation, contact our team of web developers and designers who will be happy to assist you with your project!