If you’ve been paying attention to the trends in search engine optimization (SEO) for the last few years, you will know that search engines have been stressing the importance of mobile performance. The number of people performing searches using a smartphone or tablet has increased so much, that Google is now completely shifting the way it indexes pages to mobile-first rather than desktop.
What mobile-first means is that Google will index and rank your page according to the performance of its mobile website rather than its desktop site. Google will continue to consider the performance of your desktop site in its indexing, but it’s no longer more emphasized than mobile.
What does mobile-first indexing mean for you?
Much of what Google considers when ranking a site for search engine results will not change with this new mobile-first initiative. Continue creating helpful and relevant keyword-rich content to maintain an effective SEO strategy.
You do need to make sure that your site loads fast on mobile platforms and is readable and easy to use. Check your image and video sizes as these are the main causes of a slow loading mobile page, which can affect your ranking.
What NOT to do about this mobile-first update
Ranking high in search engine results is important for attracting visitors to your site, so it can be tempting to panic and go into overdrive with any major Google update. To avoid being penalized, here are a few tips for what you need to avoid:
- Creating a separate mobile site — your mobile site and desktop site should both be the same.
- Use interstitial ads — these are ads that flood your entire screen like a pop-up. They became popular in the last few years, but search engines are making some moves to encourage digital marketers from this direction. Interstitial ads that flood an entire mobile screen could result in a penalty.
Keep in mind, you will not be penalized for not having a mobile site. A desktop-only site can still rank in search engine results, but it will be indexed after sites that perform well on the mobile front, so a desktop-only site can easily lose to competitors who have similar content on a mobile site.
Contact Burg & Co. Marketing about maintaining an effective SEO strategy
It’s hard to start an SEO strategy and keep it going if you don’t know what to do or don’t have a lot of time. Fortunately, the marketing professionals at Burg & Co. Marketing can help in both of these areas. Contact us today to discover how we can help you build an effective SEO strategy to boost your web traffic and increase leads and conversions.
