Google implemented mobile-first in April 2018 and it is, in short, a system that prioritizes results on mobile when it comes to positioning a web page in the search engine and that forces us to be clear about mobile optimization techniques.
Since the implementation of Mobile-First, Google rewards those pages and websites that are optimized for mobile.
Mobile-First was implemented to improve the user experience with the search engine, since the vast majority of searches on Google are performed to via a cell phonetherefore, it is necessary that the pages are adapted to the screens of smartphones, which have their particularities such as resolution and, above all, size.
SEO specialists have been working on mobile optimization for a long time, so it is important to know what are the best practices:
-Prioritize speed: When working on mobile optimization, one of the most important points is to prioritize the loading speed. In this sense, we have to analyze all the elements of the website and eliminate everything that is not really necessary, especially any visual material such as images and videos.
-Mobile and desktop: One of the best practices of mobile optimization is to make web pages look the same on desktop and mobile browsers. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use responsive designs. They also need to load fast, so it is often necessary to reduce CSS weight.
-Responsive design: Years ago, the mobile version of a website was created in a different version, with a different URL starting with “m.”. This technique is not recommended, as it created duplicate URLs and Google’s crawlers had trouble indexing the websites correctly. The ideal is to have a single version of the website, with a responsive design that adapts to the device.
-Top-down development approach: A top-down development approach is one that considers all possible consequences of every decision made in an end-to-end design. In this sense, it should be created first with mobile in mind, and then for desktops. This prevents the desktop design from being incompatible with mobile browsers.
-Focus on user experience: Although mobile optimization is very important, we must not forget the rest of the users. In this sense, when optimizing content we must also think about users of desktop or tablet browsers, since the user experience must be the same on all devices.
-Video practices: If we use video in mobile content, we have to optimize it correctly. In this sense, we have to create a “div” for each video that contains all the elements of the video. We must also test that all the buttons are accessible and can be used correctly on all devices. To improve loading, we can also use a separate sitemap for the videos.
-Practices for images: Proper image management is very important for mobile optimization. We must make sure that they are properly optimized for all screen sizes and all resolutions. To do this, we can use relative sizes, which will adapt better to different sizes without distortion.
