When setting up your site and implementing internal measures, it’s essential to focus on making your site mobile-friendly. This means preparing layouts and designs that are optimized for mobile devices.

By implementing mobile-friendly measures, your website or pages will display in a way that is easy to view on mobile devices. Moreover, it ensures that Google’s search engine recognizes your site as mobile-compatible, which positively impacts your SEO.

In this guide, we explain the initial SEO strategies, focusing on mobile-friendliness, for absolute beginners. If you are completely new to SEO, consider reading “The Latest in 2023: What is SEO? From the Basics to Strategy Implementation, Explained by a Pro” before proceeding with this page.

What Does Mobile-Friendly Mean? 

Mobile-friendly refers to an algorithm implemented by the Google search engine that assesses websites optimized for mobile devices. When a website is made mobile-friendly, it ensures that it can be comfortably viewed on both computers and mobile devices.

About Mobile Devices 

Initially, ‘mobile’ refers to devices suitable for use while on the move. This typically includes laptops. However, in the context of mobile-friendliness, the focus is on enabling websites to be viewable on smaller, non-PC devices. Therefore, the mobile devices referred to as being mobile-friendly primarily include the following.

• Smartphones
• Tablets

Other devices such as feature phones and PHS (Personal Handyphone System) that were popular in the past also fall under this category. However, with carriers phasing out support for feature phones, their practical use is diminishing year by year.

Smartphones 

A smartphone is a mobile phone equipped with a dedicated mobile operating system (OS). The types of OS installed on smartphones include the following.

• iOS
• Android
• Windows

Smartphones are characterized by their relatively small screen sizes, which necessitates special layouts and designs to ensure websites are comfortably viewable.

Tablets 

A tablet is a device with a touch panel on one side, generally equipped with the same type of OS as smartphones and offering similar functionalities. While tablets have larger screens compared to smartphones, they are still smaller than computer screens, requiring distinct layouts and designs.

The Importance of Being Mobile-Friendly 

The emphasis on mobile-friendliness is due to several contemporary factors as below.

• The increase in website access via mobile devices
• The implementation of mobile-friendly designs
• The introduction of Mobile-First Indexing

Increase in Mobile Device Access 

According to a 2015 communications usage survey published by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the household ownership rate for smartphones and tablets was about 10% in 2010, but by 2015, it had grown to 72.0% for smartphones and 33.3% for tablets. Along with this increase, the proportion of internet usage on mobile devices also grew.

Given this historical context, websites have increasingly been required to be viewable on mobile devices. Consequently, website management has gradually shifted to incorporate designs and layouts suitable for mobile devices.

Moreover, a more recent 2021 survey by the same ministry revealed that among people aged 20 to 49, over 90% use the internet on mobile devices. As of 2023, improving site usability by offering content in designs and layouts that are easy to view and use has become crucial.

Implementation of Mobile-Friendly 

Recognizing the importance of mobile devices, Google implemented an algorithm update known as Mobile-Friendly on April 21, 2015.

As clearly stated in a blog post on Google Search Central (formerly Google Webmaster), pages that are easier to read on mobile devices are given higher rankings in search results. Therefore, making websites mobile-compatible is a necessary SEO strategy.

Introduction of Mobile-First Indexing 

In conjunction with the Mobile-Friendly update, Google also announced the Mobile-First Index (MFI) policy.

Mobile-First Indexing means that Google evaluates and prioritizes indexing sites based on their mobile compatibility, essentially putting mobile-friendly websites first in search results. Since 2015, the use of mobile devices to access websites has continued to increase rapidly, making the Mobile-First Indexing approach increasingly critical up to the present day.

How to Check if Your Website is Mobile-Friendly 

To verify if a website is mobile-friendly, the following tools can be used.

• Mobile-Friendly Test
• Google Search Console

Using the Mobile-Friendly Test 

The Mobile-Friendly Test is a tool provided by Google to check whether a website is optimized for mobile devices. It can be used without logging in with a Google account, allowing you to check external sites easily.

How to Use the Mobile-Friendly Test 

First, navigate to the Mobile-Friendly Test page. Enter the URL of the site you want to test and click “Test URL.”

After a minute or two, the results will be displayed.

Checklist in the Mobile-Friendly Test 

The test results will check for the following points.

• Whether the page uses technology supported by mobile browsers
• Whether the page width adjusts to screen size
• Whether the text size is adequate
• Whether links are spaced appropriately

If the results indicate issues, remedial work will be necessary for each failing element.

Using Google Search Console 

Google Search Console is a tool for analyzing website traffic, provided by Google.

By using the Mobile Usability feature in Google Search Console, you can check if your pages are mobile-friendly. This feature checks all pages indexed within your website, making it useful for bulk checking when you want to review your entire site.

However, you cannot use the Mobile Usability feature unless your website is registered with Google Search Console. If it is not registered, you should register it first.

What is Google Search Console?

How to Use Mobile Usability in Google Search Console 

If your website is registered with Google Search Console and has pages indexed by Google’s search engine, no special actions are needed to use Mobile Usability.

First, log in to Google Search Console.

Select and click on Mobile Usability from the menu.

You can then see the number of indexed pages and how many are mobile-friendly.

Using PageSpeed Insights 

PageSpeed Insights is a tool provided by Google that analyzes the loading speed of websites. While it primarily checks page speed and performance, it can also determine if a site is mobile-friendly. Like the Mobile-Friendly Test, it does not require a Google account to use, making it suitable for obtaining more detailed information when needed.

The process is similar to the Mobile-Friendly Test; simply enter the URL to get results.

Visit PageSpeed Insights here.

These tools are essential for ensuring that your website provides a good user experience on mobile devices, which is increasingly important in today’s mobile-first world.

How to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly 

If your website is not yet mobile-friendly, it will need to be updated. 

The methods for renovation are primarily as follows.

-Responsive Web Design

-Dynamic Serving

-Separate URLs

Among these, Google recommends adopting Responsive Web Design.

What is Responsive Web Design? 

Responsive Web Design adjusts the layout and design of pages to fit the screen size of the device being used by the visitor. This approach eliminates the need for separate mobile URLs or HTML files, maintaining a single URL and HTML file for all devices.

Benefits of Responsive Web Design 

The benefits of using Responsive Web Design include as follows.

• No need to prepare separate URLs for mobile devices.
• No need for separate HTML files for mobile devices.
• Faster page loading speeds.

Creating dedicated URLs or HTML files for mobile devices can complicate internal links and necessitate tasks such as URL normalization to consolidate URLs.

Reducing unnecessary URLs simplifies the site structure. A simpler site structure not only improves evaluations by Google’s search engine but also simplifies the management of files and URLs.

Furthermore, centralizing URLs and HTML files eliminates unnecessary redirects during access, which in turn speeds up page loading times.

What is Dynamic Serving? 

Dynamic Serving changes the HTML file that is called based on the device the visitor is using. This setup requires only one URL, but two different HTML files.

What is a Separate URL Approach? 

The Separate URL approach directs visitors to different pages based on the device they use. This method requires setting up distinct URLs and HTML files for desktop and mobile devices.

The Relationship Between AMP and Mobile-Friendliness 

AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a technology from Google designed to speed up page loading on mobile devices.

How AMP Works 

Firstly, Google stores a cache of AMP-compatible and indexed web pages on its servers. What is stored is a simplified HTML file designed for AMP. When a user accesses an AMP-optimized page via the search engine, the cached content is loaded, enabling the page to display quickly.

AMP as Part of Mobile-First Indexing 

Initially, AMP was developed by Google as part of its Mobile-First Indexing initiative. When Google introduced AMP in 2015, the following preferential treatments were given to AMP pages.

• An AMP badge icon added in search results.
• A carousel for AMP pages is set up in the search results.

However, there were risks for website operators adopting AMP technology as follows.

• Original articles might not be displayed.
• Potential decreases in advertising revenue.
• Restrictions on page design and functionality.
• The need for separate AMP HTML files, increasing operational complexity.

Due to these factors, many websites chose not to adopt AMP.

The Future of AMP Support 

As of 2023, the preferential treatment for AMP pages has ended, and site owners are reconsidering whether to continue supporting AMP. Although AMP was developed following the Mobile-First Indexing concept, Google has recently introduced a new tool called Bento AMP, which continues the approach. AMP still offers the significant advantage of fast mobile page loading. The current status of AMP varies by website compatibility, so whether to continue using AMP should be decided after considering these compatibility aspects.

Common Questions About Mobile-Friendliness (FAQ) 

Here are some frequently asked questions about mobile-friendliness.

Q: Is mobile compatibility mandatory? 

A: Generally, yes. 

In 2023, the number of internet users on mobile devices has increased significantly, making it essential to design websites with mobile access in mind. However, there are exceptional cases where the target audience is strictly desktop users and access from Google’s search engine is not needed.

Q: What is the difference between mobile-friendliness and Mobile-First Indexing? 

A: They mean different things. 

Mobile-friendliness refers to part of the algorithm that Google search engine uses to determine rankings. On the other hand, Mobile-First Indexing refers to the policy of prioritizing the crawling and indexing of mobile-compatible pages.

Q: What is the Mobile-Friendly Update? 

A: It refers to an update to the Google search engine algorithm to incorporate the concept of mobile-friendliness.

Summary 

As mobile device usage has increased, the importance of ‘access via mobile’ has become more significant, giving rise to the concept of mobile-friendliness. To adopt mobile-friendliness, websites need to be easily viewable on mobile devices. Implementing responsive web design is recommended by Google to facilitate this. If you are planning to make your website or pages mobile-friendly, consider adopting responsive web design.

Author Profile

International Web Consultant Paveena Suphawet

A trilingual professional in English, Thai, and Japanese, she has numerous achievements in international SEO. She studied the latest IT technologies at Assumption International University, Thailand, and majored in International Business at the University of Greenwich, UK. Following her tenure at ExxonMobil’s Thai branch, she became a key member of Admano from its establishment.

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