John Leo WeberDirector of Digital Marketing

Geek Powered Studios

Upasna GautamDigital Marketing ManagerGeek Powered Studios

@johnleoweber @upasnagautam

Adapt or Die:Designing For Google's Mobile-First Index

@johnleoweber

What Is The Google Algorithm?A system used by Google to decide what information to

show to a user on search result pages

• Core Ranking Algorithm (approx. 10,000 signals)• Local Filters (Pigeon and Hummingbird)• Content Filter (Panda)• Link/Web Spam Filter (Penguin)• Rank Brain Machine Learning (Algorithmic Update)

@johnleoweber

What About The Mobile First-Index?

• Will be rolled out “sometime this year”

• A website will be ranked in Google based on the mobile version of the website

• If no mobile version of the website is found, the desktop version will be used for ranking

@johnleoweber

Why Is Doing This?• More than 50% of Google searches are mobile

• Frustrating for users when unable to access “full site”

• Forces us to stop treating mobile as an afterthought

• Aligns with other recent changes to SERPs

@johnleoweber

If is modifying their own site for mobile, then we

should, too…

@johnleoweber

Back Then

• 7 map-pack results

• Side bar layout (designed for desktop)

• 3 ads at top of page

@johnleoweber

Now

• 3 map-pack results

• 1 column layout

• 4 ads at top of page

@johnleoweber

Who Will Be Affected?• m.website.com will be hit the hardest if the mobile site contains less content, meta, markup language, etc

• PRO TIP: claim both example.com and m.example.com in Webmaster Tools

• Fully responsive sites will be largely unaffected

@johnleoweber

Why This Signals Massive Change

@johnleoweber

The Universal Truths of Mobile• Less is more

• Responsive does not mean treat both screens as the same

• Your users aren’t thinking about what device they are on, so think for them

•Tablets are NOT mobile devices

•Speed Matters: “74% of users will bounce if your mobile website takes longer than 5 seconds to load.” -Simon Bolger, Google

@johnleoweber

Just To Scare You!

@upasnagautam

Mobile-First Checklist

• Mobile Content and Navigation• Structured Data• Site Search• Form Entry• Usability

Mobile users are very goal-oriented. They expect to be able to get what they need, immediately, and on their own terms.

@upasnagautam

Mobile Content & Navigation•Focus your homepage on connecting users with content they’re looking for•CTAs are front and center•Keep menus short and sweet•Make it easy to get back to the homepage•Say no to app interstitials!

@upasnagautam

Structured Data•Make sure to serve structured markup for both the desktop and mobile versions •Use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool•Avoid adding large amounts of markup that isn’t relevant to the specific information/content of each document•Use robots.txt testing tool to verify that your mobile site is accessible to Googlebot

@upasnagautam

Site Search

•Make site search visible (don’t hide it in menus)•Ensure results are relevant•Use filters to narrow results•Guide users to better and/or similar results

@upasnagautam

Form Entry

•Streamline information entry•Choose simplest input•Design efficient forms

@upasnagautam

Usability

•Optimize your entire site for mobile•Don’t make users pinch-to-zoom•Tell users which orientation works best•Keep the user in a single browser

@upasnagautam

Most important to keep in mind:

Mobile users are goal-oriented. They expect to be able to get what they need, immediately, and

on their own terms.

Thank you!

Questions?

@johnleoweber