We recently posted in our Weekly Hustle a story about Google's new policy of mobile-first indexing. The tl;dr is that Google will be indexing your site as a mobile site before it looks at a desktop view.
Really, this should come as no surprise. Almost 60% of web traffic comes from a mobile device to begin with, and mobile devices made up almost half of all time spent online. Google, and I would assume a number of other search engines to follow, want to ensure that they are feeding searchers the best possible results for their searches.
There are a couple of major things that will impact your business or side hustle's web presence.
Your Site Must Prioritize Mobile Devices
One of the most frustrating things for me is traveling along the Pennsylvania Turnpike (it's first-world problems for sure, so you can judge me as you like). It's not because I hate driving, or because it is so long. It's because the free wifi agreement screen is super tiny text and a checkbox to agree that only a small insect can find without zooming.
Again, a minor thing. But we've all been there. We've all seen websites that need to be zoomed constantly to see their content on our mobile phones or devices.
No matter the content you are creating or the products you are selling, having a website that is mobile ready and mobile friendly is vital. This means content that can be viewed on every screen, can easily be read, and can be scrolled in an easy manner.
Prioritize Speed
My wife and I recently had a situation where we had to use a lot of data in a month. Between me using my hotspot during a community event to help get a printer online, and an emergency trip across the state to family with no internet, we were watching our data closely. When we closed out our last day of the billing cycle, we ended 10 megabytes (MBs) under our data limit.
That 10 MBs could have been your site. It's nothing at all nowadays.
Speed and size of your site is crucial to make your site mobile friendly, and these are some of the key elements Google is looking for when indexing. They focus on these things because it greatly benefits your user's experience. Making sure your site loads in under 1.5 seconds with images that are simultaneously optimized for slow data speeds and scalable for desktop users is a key factor in helping your site be found online!
Content Above the Fold
When people visit your business on the web, that first view is crucial. This is what is called "Above the fold": It is the content that is loading first in that initial view.
In combination with the two points above, your content that loads first helps engage the user so they stay on the page. Google will be looking at this to see if it both provides a meaningful experience for your user, as well as important content about the nature of what you do in your business.
If you have questions about these things, our partners at tripleNERDscore can help! Contact them today!