From September 2020 Google will be moving to “mobile-first indexing”. What does that actually mean? From now on, Google will index the mobile version of your website; whereas in the past Google would have indexed the desktop version.

The main reason this is happening is because more and more people are using their mobile devices to search for content. As we know, Google favours page experience, so if your website isn’t mobile-responsive yet, you need to get a move on.

Here are some ways you can make sure your website is ready:

Mobile-friendly test

The quickest and easiest way to see if your website is mobile friendly is to take a mobile test. All you have to do is paste in your website URL and Google will analyse your website’s structure and code.

Once the analysis is done, hopefully you will see something like this:

If you don’t see this image, your website isn’t mobile friendly. Do you need to get your website up to scratch? 

For those who do see that image, congratulations your website is mobile friendly! Although, don’t forget this is just the minimum to get your website indexed on mobile. It doesn’t mean you will rank at the top of every search listing.

Prioritise content

So you’ve passed the test and your website is mobile friendly, which is great. Now, get your mobile device and browse your website on mobile.

You might find that it’s working but do you really need all of that content showing on mobile? For example, all the images on the page, are they needed? The view on a desktop is different from mobile, and more content needs more and more scrolling. Ask yourself what is absolutely necessary. This is where you need to decide and prioritise your content for mobile users.

You want users on the website as long as possible, to find out about your brand and also purchase an item (if selling) or contact you. The longer users are on your website, Google will potentially push you up the rankings; as they know your website offers a positive page experience.

Here are some quick tips to help you prioritise your website content:

• Remove decorative graphics on mobile devices (images can be powerful if they’re used in moderation).
• Use accordions – You might have a lot of text which is fine, but give users the chance to hide content.
• Make sure fonts are readable and not too big.
• Reduce dead space – A background image with a lot of padding (space above/below and around the image)on desktop view, is most likely going to be the same on mobile. This can increase scrolling and look clunky. Remove it!

Check Mobile Snippets (Search Engine Results Pages/SERP)

How do your users currently find your website on Google? Do they find you through mobile or desktop? Take a look at your Google Analytics.

SERPS are important to any website as they tell users what your content is about before clicking onto your website. It’s important you have a readable page snippet on mobile, if it’s too long users won’t be able to read it. This will potentially lose yourself a click.

Here are some good examples of clear snippets:

Need help writing your Google snippet? Ask Blue Cheese Digital for help.

Conclusion

Long term, if you don’t do much testing on the mobile version of your website, you are likely going to suffer and you might find yourself down the Google rankings.

We’d highly recommend you test your mobile website as much as possible; as this is where most of your users are going to find you. Gone are the days of only creating your website for desktop users; mobile devices are now the priority.