Mobile Website Optimization: From A to Z

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In the modern world, smartphones are becoming the main way to access the Internet. According to research , more than 60.67% of users in 2024 visit websites from phones, and the figure continues to grow. This data emphasizes the importance of mobile optimization for web resources. Unadapted sites lose most of their traffic, which ultimately affects business.

In this article we will tell you how to make your resource mobile-friendly and maintain traffic at the desired level.

A bit of terminology
Mobile optimization allows the web resource interface to be displayed equally well on devices with different screen sizes. This means that the user will be able to conveniently view the site from a computer, tablet, and smartphone. There are two types of mobile optimization of a resource: adaptive layout and creating a separate version of the site. Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Adaptive layout means that the site will look the same on all devices, and its interface will adapt to the screen size.

A separate mobile version involves creating a separate website designed for downloading on smartphones.

Both approaches have their pros and cons, but the choice depends on the needs of the business and the audience.

When I found out that the site itself does not adapt to the device

*When I found out that the site itself does not adapt to the device

Does Everyone Need Mobile Optimization?
If you are not sure about the need to optimize your site for mobile devices, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the benefits it provides:

Increased traffic and audience retention. Users are more likely to stay on a site that is easy to view from a phone. Having a mobile version helps reduce the number of bounces, which in turn has a positive effect on resource promotion.
Improving user experience. Mobile optimization provides resource visitors with convenient interaction with content regardless of the type of device they use to visit the site.
Correct display of the interface. Sites that have been optimized for mobile devices look neat on all types of devices. Buttons and other elements of the site are the right size and do not overlap each other.
Priority in search results. Mobile-friendly sites occupy higher positions in Google and Yandex.
Thus, mobile website optimization is necessary for everyone who wants their website to be used not only from a computer, but also from other devices.

Search Engine Requirements for Mobile Sites
In order for resources to rank well in Yandex and Google, they must meet certain criteria. Let's talk about them in more detail.

Google requirements
Since 2019, Google has been focusing on indexing pages with mobile-first priority. This means that the search engine gives the first positions to sites that have a mobile version of the site. At the same time, pages that do not meet the requirements will not be scanned by crawlers.

It is also important that both versions of the site contain the same amount of content. If the mobile version has less information than the desktop version, this may negatively affect the resource's position in search results. It is not a big deal if some of the content is hidden by buttons for convenience. Some information blocks can be made smaller to fit everything necessary into the mobile version.

Image Optimization
As for images, they must be in one of the following formats: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP and SVG.

To optimize pages with graphic elements, it is worth using a Sitemap file and HTML elements. You should also work out meta tags for each page. This will help search engines correctly create headings and describe images.

The text in alt attributes should be concise and informative. If you use several languages, it is worth translating the file names accordingly.

To use optimized and compressed images in search results instead of full-size ones, you need hungary whatsapp data to specify the correct URL in the HTTP Referer header or send the HTTP 204 status code with No Content. This will allow Google to scan the image, adding only a thumbnail, which will speed up indexing.

It is important to monitor the max-width parameter for images and specify it in %. Otherwise, the image on the smartphone will be large or stretched. In addition, if you neglect this parameter, the page may move and all the content will become smaller than the image.

Video Optimization
To optimize video content, you should follow these recommendations:

It is advisable to use only supported formats and the same tags on both versions of the site.
It is worth creating a separate page for each video. This will ensure maximum coverage. However, it is important that the page contains other content in addition to the video, so that it does not fall under the MPC filter. 1
It is better to avoid complex JavaScript code, as it can slow down crawlers.
It is worth using embedded videos. A typical example is videos published on RuTube, which can be viewed without going to the hosting. 2 Such videos are indexed on all platforms at once.
It is important to control the streaming of files, for this it is worth ensuring high bandwidth of servers. To connect structured data, you need to use the contentURL property.
For more information, check out Google's video optimization guidelines .

1 - Yandex filter "Insignificant content", which lowers search results positions.

2 - Information is current as of October 2024.

Yandex requirements
The domestic search engine also takes adaptability into account when ranking websites. This was announced in the Yandex blog at the beginning of 2016 when the Vladivostok algorithm was introduced. However, the recommendations are not as strict as Google's. Thus, the mobile and desktop versions do not necessarily have to have identical content. It is important that it simply does not differ much.

To help Yandex crawlers determine the correct version of the page, you need to specify the URLs of the mobile version on the main site. 3 In this case, you do not need to set up a redirect, just use the appropriate meta tag. More information on embedding HTML elements can be found in Yandex reference materials.

Yandex indexing robot supports the following browser versions:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; iPhone OS 8_1 CPU, same as Mac OS X).
AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, e.g. Gecko) version/8.0 Mobile/12B411.
Safari/600.1.4
To ensure that pages display correctly, you must allow CSS and JavaScript scanning in the robots.txt file. Also, when optimizing content, keep in mind that Flash, Silverlight, and Applet elements are no longer displayed on all devices.

The mobile version is available in Webmaster. To check the page adaptability, the crawler scans the main domain and mobile subdomain.

More detailed information about the requirements for setting up mobile pages can be found in Yandex Help .