The enormous growth of the wave of mobile devices for browsing the Internet is already undeniable, to the point of leaving desktop screens far behind. The same thing is happening with e-commerce and year after year these numbers only grow and grow. And because? Because the content and products we are looking for are more within reach than ever, and we are witnessing a historic moment in terms of browsing behavior.
So much so that Google took this data and was in charge of implementing the new “Mobile Index First” algorithm some time ago, which we know as “Mobile First” in the jargon, and is basically the preference of responsive websites to index their results. . That is, it is no longer just about what we write, keywords or traffic to our site, but it is prioritizing that the web page we are visiting is compatible and looks comfortable when browsing it from a smartphone or any mobile device.
Until now, having a beautiful responsive website, adapted to the use of smartphones and tablets, was more about offering a better user experience than about positioning. But this changed.
Let’s see what Mobile First is and how to score some points in the eyes of Google.
What is mobile first?
Mobile First is a new way of approaching the design of a website or application based on responsive design, always starting with mobile devices and small screens before thinking about how it looks on desktop.
Mobile-first design
When we create a desktop-based website, the mobile version needs some adjustments to the elements so that everything looks good on the mobile screen. Many make the mistake of removing content or components so that the website looks perfect in the mobile environment. The first recommendation is that you do not delete content, but rather that you arrange it in such a way that it is not necessary to delete it, for example, summarizing information and synthesizing your texts, going to more conceptual and clear content.
Often, if you’re working on a new responsive site, you’ll run into some challenges like working on a small screen size. If our website has several links, images and/or buttons that take us to different links within your site, you must distribute them strategically so as not to confuse the eye or hinder ‘touch’ navigation, for example by not placing them above them.
Another valuable recommendation is that the pages of your site weigh as little as possible, this includes images, videos or any content with which you are enriching your site, because many will browse it from a mobile connection, and we do not want to consume the entire data package our visitors, right?
UX: User Experience
Mobile first is based on usability and accessibility to guarantee a pleasant experience. Remember that a good experience browsing your site from a mobile phone ensures a longer user stay on the web, and Google and search engines love this. They will even reward you for it by placing you in a better position in their results.
On the contrary, if the website is not mobile friendly and the user has to scroll too much, zoom or rotate their screen permanently, the chances of them abandoning it are very high, fleeing before their time. Keep in mind that Google looks at the time a visitor browses your page, and if you haven’t taken it into account, you should do so because the longer they stay browsing it, the more likely they are to succeed.
Loading time
As we told you above, and we repeated in a lot of previous posts, your website has to be optimized to load as quickly as possible. A visitor flees in terror from a site that takes too long to load. That is why at WNPower we equip our Hosting plans with exclusive tools to measure and improve the loading speed of your website.
Quality content
Make sure you offer fresh, updated and relevant content to your visitors, but always synthesized to the point of not being boring or having an eternal scroll of only text. Search engines will reward you and you will be retaining your visitors much longer if they find what they are looking for. In SEO terms, this means less bounce rate and is a factor that helps us index higher.
If users leave your website as quickly as they arrived, Google will interpret this as meaning that there is no relevant content and it will not be relevant to them either, so they will downplay your page.
Mobile first and duplicate content
You may already have a mobile-friendly website but you are using a special URL for when users access it, for example ‘m.yoursite.com’. Danger! Search engines will take this as duplicate content and will severely lower your score, penalizing you in their results.
It is best to have a responsive design so that you do not need to redirect traffic from mobile devices to another folder or subdomain. Please take note, this is very important!
Share on social networks
Users read and share content and links on their social networks, which they use mainly from their smartphone. Another good reason to offer a mobile first experience and everything looks beautiful on your screens
Not having a website compatible with mobile devices not only already has a negative impact but is also proof that we are ignoring the evolution in the way we communicate. Do you already have a mobile website?