Top Mobile-First Indexing Practices an SEO Specialist Must Be Expert At

Since the majority use their mobile devices for browsing products or data online, an SEO Specialist should be skilled at increasing a website's visibility mobile-first.  To catch greater attention from customers, larger online businesses put as much effort in developing website quality and rankings. As of now, the best SEO UK professionals and marketers have been prioritising mobile content, allowing them to rank well on Google through mobile-first indexing.

Through mobile-first indexing, Google prioritises the mobile version of websites for crawling, ranking, and indexing over desktop versions. But what can be done to provide the best experience to users through mobile devices? Here are a number of the top mobile-first indexing practices that professional SEO specialists should carry out.

Site interactivity

When it comes to desktop sites, small, interactive buttons are acceptable since users have a mouse to click them. However, An SEO Specialist should be able to optimise pages perfect for mobile devices.

The buttons for mobile pages must be larger and easier for fingers to click on. This requires customising the layout to help users scroll through and click with ease.

Image and Video Availability

A competent Google SEO specialist must double-check video and image visibility and accessibility for mobile devices.

If your video player isn't responsive and optimised for mobile devices, the video may load to full-screen size, making it too large for users to view.

To check for this, simply load your site on a mobile phone and view your content personally before making any changes

Equip Your Mobile Site with Primary Content

A Google SEO specialist must be adept at manoeuvring a mobile site as Google views it as the primary source of content in the mobile-first index.

So, for a responsive site, you won't see fluctuations in ratings once the switch occurs. In this ideal scenario, the user will adapt to whatever device they are in as they will only use one URL.

However, if you don't have a responsive site, you'll need to at least make sure your main content exists on your mobile site to avoid negative repercussions. Google publishes guidelines and regularly makes between 500 and 600 adjustments each year, which you must adhere to.

Consider metadata

An Organic SEO specialist must be proficient in handling metadata as it gives clues to search engines about page contents.

Therefore, it should be present in both versions of the site. Simple precautions like similar titles and meta descriptions on all pages across both versions of your WordPress can go a long way.

No need to change internal Links

Alterations are not necessary for interconnecting with separate mobile URLs (m.-dot sites). If you are using separate mobile URLs, keep the existing rel = canonical link and then the rel = link alternate between the two versions.

Take note of languages

An Organic SEO specialist must not forget to check hreflang links on separate mobile URLs if WordPress is multilingual.

You'll need to link between mobile and desktop URLs separately.

Don't forget hosting

Ensure that the host servers can handle a likely surge in crawl rate if your WordPress website's mobile version is on a separate host.

Make sure to carry out verification

For WordPress, authenticating your desktop website alone on the Google Search Console for mobile-first indexing is not enough. You'll need to submit your mobile version of your WordPress and Google Search Console for verification.

Focus on SEO

Even when checking the point of view of mobile users, Google continuously indexes your desktop version. So continue with top-notch content and SEO practices.

Make Sure the Servers Hosting Your Site Are Ready to Handle the Increased Crawl Rate

Mobile-first indexing may heavily strain your hosting, which slows the page down for your visitors if you have many web pages. Google says they do their best to avoid degrading site performance, but ultimately it's hard to judge from a distance.

This isn't very actionable, as adding additional hosting capacity can be expensive if you don't need it. But you need to closely monitor cell phone speeds as Google implements it and pay close attention to customer complaints about loading speeds.

Verify Your Mobile Site in Search Console

Failing to validate your mobile site in Search Console can cause improper categorisation of your site or can even be overlooked by Google.  If you haven't already, just head over to Google Search Console and either add a new site or verify your existing site if it's already been added.

Don't Serve Incomplete or Buggy Mobile Sites

For now, Google announced that they would not impose an open penalty as they continue to index the desktop version even if they can't find a mobile site for your domain.  

If your company has a half-baked or slow-loading mobile site, you should take it down immediately. It wasn't an issue in the past because Google relied primarily on your desktop site to compile its search index. If your mobile site was glitchy or broken, it might have hurt you in other ways, but your index was safe.

A proficient SEO Specialist must have a good grasp of the complex process of optimising your business website for both desktop and mobile experience. But considering the greater demand for mobile search, it's important to have a responsive website. To get ahead of the competition, it's recommended to invest in a mobile website as early as possible. Likewise, this might even give an expert more time to shape a mobile website. As Google is becoming stricter with its mobile-first indexing, an SEO expert should perform the best strategies to ensure the stability of a website's rankings. Be sure to take note of the things mentioned above.