Since 2019, Google has implemented mobile-first indexing. SEO specialists must therefore think about mobile searches first. Here are some good habits to adopt.
Mobile is now dominant in Google searches. According to Sistrix, a leading SEO platform, 64% of search queries on the search engine are made on mobile. To adapt to this data, Google decided, in 2019, to adopt a mobile-first approach, which means that it analyzes and indexes the mobile version of websites as a priority, rather than their desktop version.
Therefore, any SEO strategy must take into account the specificities of smartphone search. In this article, we review five SEO best practices specifically adapted to mobile!
1. Adopt a responsive and mobile-friendly design
A website must automatically adapt to all screen sizes to ensure a seamless mobile experience. Google favors responsive design, which allows you to change the site’s display without creating a separate URL.
To ensure optimal mobile compatibility, here are the essential points to follow:
- Use flexible grids and responsive images to look great on all screens.
- Ensure optimized HTML/CSS structure to promote fast loading and avoid display errors.
- Regularly test your site with tools like Lighthouse or Sitechecker to analyze its mobile performance and identify possible technical corrections.
2. Improve loading speed
Loading speed is a key factor in mobile SEO. A site that’s too slow leads to a higher bounce rate, with less responsiveness on smartphones. Ideally, a mobile page should load in less than three seconds.
To optimize performance, it’s essential to reduce image size by using formats like WebP and compressing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files. Enabling lazy loading (lazy loading of images) also helps speed up display.
Using powerful hosting and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) also helps distribute resources and reduce latency. Finally, regularly testing your site with Google PageSpeed Insights helps identify areas for improvement to ensure a fast and seamless mobile experience.
3. Adapt content and SEO to mobile and voice searches
Mobile searches are often short, local, and conversational, while voice search favors full sentences in natural language. Tailoring your content to these specificities helps capture more mobile traffic.
It’s recommended to use simple sentences and short paragraphs, with clear headings (H2, H3) and bulleted lists for quick reading. Placing answers to questions at the beginning of the article also makes them easier to display in Featured Snippets and improves SEO.
Optimizing for voice search involves using long-tail keywords and question-based queries (e.g., “How do I optimize a site for mobile?”). Finally, integrating structured data (Schema.org) and optimizing Google My Business can improve local visibility on mobile and voice assistants.
4. Improve mobile UX and remove intrusive elements
User experience (UX) is a key factor in mobile SEO: an intuitive and user-friendly site promotes engagement and reduces bounce rates. To improve mobile UX, it is essential to:
- Simplify navigation by limiting the number of steps required to access key content.
- Remove intrusive elements, such as aggressive pop-ups or interstitials that hide information.
- Optimize the ergonomics of interactions: correctly space clickable elements to avoid handling errors and use visible and suitable CTA buttons (minimum 44 × 44 pixels), placed within thumb reach.
Analyzing user behavior using heatmap tools (Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity) helps identify navigation barriers and continuously improve the mobile experience.
5. Track and analyze mobile SEO performance
Mobile SEO optimization doesn’t stop after implementation. It’s important to regularly track performance to adjust your strategy and improve the user experience. Key metrics to monitor include bounce rate, mobile loading speed, mobile search ranking, click-through rate (CTR), and mobile conversions.
To analyze this data, Google Search Console helps track rankings and identify usability issues, while Google Analytics 4 measures mobile traffic and visitor behavior. Based on the results, you can fix UX errors, optimize content, and adapt CTAs.
