Mobile-First Indexing: 5 Tips To Do It Right

Most of your visitors first see your website on a mobile device. Do they like what they see? Do you? But even more, what does google think of your website?

Since 1st July 2019, Google is indexing Mobile-First. We all know this (don’t we?) but what does this mean for your website and your Google rankings? Here are 5 of the most important aspects that Google takes into consideration with Mobile-First Indexing

So what should you (or your web developer) do if you want to have a great Mobile-First Indexing website?

1.Collapsing navigation AKA Hamburger Menu

It is the little three horizontal line icon usually on the right upper corner of your mobile screen. It is fairly familiar to all of us but the function of it is not so well known. The Hamburger Menu is there to replace the inline top navigation because this would be hard to click on with your fingertips. Space is limited on a mobile screen and the stuffy multi-page navigation would break and occupy most of the mobile screen. Make sure that your navigation collapses and menu items are well spaced out so that they can be touched easily with the thumb or index finger.

2. Clickable items far apart

As explained above, clickable items should be at a distance where your fingertips can reach them effortlessly. Think about items like buttons, links or clickable images, when placed too close to each other, it might get hard to press on the intended item. Yes Google sees and considers all these aspects of your site. 

3. Text size

You will notice it on the lack of your search ranking success. And if you are connected to Search Console you will get an error warning that asks you to immediately remediate. Text size weighs heavily on Mobile-First Indexing. So what is the ideal size that pleases Google? In general, the rule of thumb is that font size needs to be 16 pixels for mobile websites. Anything smaller than that could compromise readability for visually impaired readers. Anything larger will also make reading difficult.

4. Responsive Images

Responsive images will automatically adjust to fit the size of the screen. This is very important mostly if you are displaying profiles or if images are important for the look and feel of your website. If an image is given a large fixed width and height, for example to fit a section on a desktop computer, it will for sure be cut off on a mobile screen. This will render the image meaningless and so will Google render your importance.

5. Screen width

This is fairly simple but can be a nightmare if your website does not scale nicely on mobile. Most mobile devices have a screen width between 320px and 640px is portrait mode, if your website or any section of it is being told to be wider than that on a media only screen then your website is not scaling right. You have probably encountered, otherwise good looking, websites that annoyingly scroll left and right into a white nothing? This happens when a section or an image on that page is given a fixed width that is not defined properly its purpose and is affecting all screen sizes creating a white space either on the left or the right of the original content. This does not only make your site look unprofessional but also affects your search rankings in the long run.

If all of the above is overwhelming but you would like to know how to have your website in top shape on every device, you can ask us for a Free Consultation.

These tips were offered to you by SexyWebsites.

SexyWebsites is a Rotterdam based Full-Service Digital Marketing Agency that focuses entirely on Erotic related businesses. Our services include Web-Design and Development, SEO, SEA, Content and Email Marketing. For more information on who we are and what we do, visit our website SexyWebsites.net

As a bonus, we are now offering a free consultation for your website. You can request this by following this link and filling out the contact form with your contact details.