Mobile version optimization is essential to SEO success!
Back in 2016, Mobile and Tablet traffic for the first time exceeded Desktop traffic. In 2019, the trend continued and the dominance of mobile traffic is increasing. It is even said that over 60% of Internet traffic comes from mobile devices. For this reason, mobile version optimization is very important for our website. To give us guidance on what to focus on, I turned to Gennadiy Vorobyov. He is an SEO specialist with many years of experience and the owner of Netpeak Bulgaria, one of the leading digital agencies in Eastern Europe.
What is Mobile-First Indexing?
Of course, the growing Internet usage on mobile devices has not gone unnoticed by Google. This is why a few years ago, Mobile-First Indexing was introduced. To clarify, it means that Google ranks search results based on the quality of the mobile version of a website.
Mobile-First Indexing means that Google first starts viewing the mobile version and then the desktop version.
Gennadiy Vorobyov, CEO of Netpeak Bulgaria
By using the URL Inspection Tool in the Google Search Console, we can find information about the indexing of our website on Google. As well as see if Google considers our website Mobile-Friendly.
Primary tips for mobile version optimization
We can outline a few basics elements:
For a start, we need to keep the mobile version of the website responsive. However, it is not advisable to have a separate website for the mobile version, designed specifically for mobile devices and different from the desktop version. The mobile version should be the responsive version of the same website we have for desktop devices.
Another factor is the website loading speed. This is probably one of the most important elements that we need to focus on, both for SEO and in general. The faster our website loads, the better for our users and our Google Search Results optimization. Therefore, users will not waste time and will be able to interact with our websites faster. See more tips on the speed and performance optimizations for our website.
Last but not least, we ought to pay attention to the usability and design for mobile devices. In other words, is our content readable and does it look good on mobile devices, are the margins well proportioned or are the buttons of the proper size to be easily pressed, etc.
Mobile version optimization analysis tools
One of the best tools to analyze the status of the mobile version is Google’s PageSpeed Insights. It gives recommendations on how to improve the mobile version. Good analysis can also be done through DevTools in the Google Chrome browser. We can do a mobile device test by checking “Mobile” in the “Audits” option.
In addition, Think with Google offers a good tool that lets us easily check how our site is loading under 3G and 4G mobile networks. We could also use GTmetrix to have a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the speed of our website, which will give us suggestions for optimization as well.
Bonus!
Check out Netpeak’s detailed checklist of 29 steps for a perfect mobile version of a website.
To conclude, with the growth of traffic from mobile devices, the mobile version of the website is more important than ever before!