Guest post by Nick Rojas.
Two months ago, Webbiquity posted an article regarding mobile-first indexing. Since then, Google has officially started their mobile-first changeover, though it is still in the trial phase and only a select few websites are the testing grounds. Because the advertising and SEO worlds are profoundly affected whenever Google makes a change, it’s worthwhile to understand the best practices of mobile websites and move towards maintaining a mobile presence.
Mobile Friendly Practices
To best prepare for the new indexing scheme, all businesses should have a mobile version of their websites. The hallmarks of a good mobile site include fast loading times, efficient layouts for small screens, and low energy consumption. Google published a short guide for mobile-first indexing for the more technically-inclined, too.
Fast loading times help in two ways: first, they require less computing power, and second, they require less data. Plenty of mobile users are restricted by data caps. When they are forced to download large amounts of data simply to view a website, it causes frustration and an aversion to the data-guzzling mobile site. Slow loading times are also frustrating, and limited resources on mobile means developers are even more restricted by computation limits.