Despite being a relatively recent invention, smartphones have transformed almost every aspect of our lives, including how we communicate, travel, shop and entertain ourselves. They’ve changed how we search the Internet too. Up to 59% of all web traffic comes from mobile searches and Google has refined its algorithm over time to better suit mobile devices. In a process called “mobile-first indexing”, Google now prioritises the mobile version of a website over the desktop version, no matter what kind of device you’re using.
Mobile-first indexing calls for mobile-first SEO, a style of search engine optimisation that focuses on improving design and user experience for mobile users. If your website isn’t optimised for mobile devices, it’s more likely to lose out in rankings even if it’s perfectly designed for desktop.
Mobile-first SEO doesn’t just help you rank on Google. It has a whole host of other benefits for both your brand and your potential customers.
Anchor Digital is a full-service creative marketing agency with over 10 years of experience helping businesses connect with new audiences using the right SEO strategy. This is our guide to how you can use a mobile-friendly approach to grow your brand and increase your sales.
What is Mobile-First SEO?
If you’ve run your share of marketing campaigns, you’ll be familiar with search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO is the art of optimising your website to increase traffic from organic (as opposed to paid) search results. SEO is essential for the success of your brand, with tools like keyword targeting, backlinks and meta-data essential for any good SEO campaign.
Mobile-first SEO means optimising your website to make it as accessible, functional and responsive as possible for mobile users. It’s a response to the evolution of Google’s algorithms and the rise in mobile-first indexing. Google first made mobile-friendliness a ranking factor in 2015, launching the ‘Mobilegeddon’ update in response to the surge in smartphone usage. It began testing the mobile-first approach on select sites in 2016 and started to gradually roll it out in 2018. The growth of mobile-first indexing has been quick, and in 2025, brands that don’t adopt the approach risk being left behind.
Responsive web design is the core of the mobile-first approach. A responsive website can adapt to various screen sizes and orientations, ensuring an enjoyable experience across different devices.
Why is Mobile-First SEO Important?
The growth of mobile phone use has led to a sizable surge in location-based searches and users looking for immediate information. These searches tend to be very specific and have high-purchase intent, as users look around for the closest petrol station, fancy restaurant or 24-hour chemist. To meet this demand, Google prioritises local results, often displaying specific information like maps and reviews in the process. With voice search becoming the dominant search function and “near me” queries on the rise (“restaurants near me” etc.), being able to deliver relevant results to customers quickly has become an irreplaceable skill.
Google responded to this preference for mobile searches by changing their algorithm, prioritising the mobile version of a website before the desktop version in search results. While Google is the search engine that has embraced mobile-first indexing the most enthusiastically, other search engines like Bing are now following suit.
Mobile-first SEO is important for a number of reasons including:
Search engine rankings
Websites that optimise for mobile are more likely to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), while sites that neglect optimising for mobile are likely to find themselves slipping from search results.
Performance
Pages that are optimised for mobile will typically load faster due to being streamlined for efficiency and having unnecessary elements removed.
Scalability
It’s easier to design a website for mobile first and then “scale up” to desktop than it is to tweak the images, links and buttons to modify an existing desktop site for mobile. When taking the mobile-first approach, you prioritise the essentials and make the most of limited screen space, creating a foundation that’s easier to build on.
Decreased bounce rate
Having a mobile-friendly website is one of the best ways to reduce your bounce rate, as these kinds of sites are user-friendly and visually engaging.
How to Optimise For Mobile-First SEO
Here are some tips for implementing mobile-first search practices into your SEO strategy:
Prioritise your site’s mobile performance
The better your site performs on mobile, the better it performs all around. Some technical areas to focus on include optimising your Core Web Vitals, reducing your load time and removing unused JavaScript code.
Ensure your content adapts to a smaller screen
Your content should be readable and easy on the eye on both mobile and desktop devices. Prioritise the most important page elements for your users, e.g. forms and call-to-action (CTA) buttons, and cut down on clutter like needless buttons, links or text.
Prioritise user experience (UX) considerations
When designing a website for mobile users, there are certain needs that should be addressed. The site should be easy to navigate with your thumb, feature easy-to-read fonts and leave plenty of space to navigate between clickable elements, among other design choices.
Pay attention to the technical aspects
There are some technical aspects of SEO that also require attention when optimising your site for mobile. Make sure your viewport settings are correct, ensure your resources are easy to crawl and not blocked by any robots.txt files and implement proper canonical tags.
Choose the right keywords for mobile search
Mobile searches typically involve conversational-style queries. Target long-tail keywords and natural-sounding phrases to mimic the authentic flow of language.
Prioritise page speed
Mobile users are frequently in a rush and need to find the right information quickly. These days, the expectation of fast Internet is so strong that most desktop users will abandon your site if it takes more than three seconds to load. Prioritising website speed makes you appear more capable, competent and trustworthy, not just to mobile users but to users in general.
Monitor and test
Regularly testing your approach and updating it if necessary is essential for your mobile SEO success. Use tools like Google Search Console to track mobile usability issues and run regular audits to catch problems in the early stages.
Reach Your Target Audience with Anchor Digital
If you’re looking for SEO in Brisbane (including mobile-first SEO), Anchor Digital can help. Our approach incorporates both recent developments and timeless principles that have always worked and still do. We take an integrated approach to different channels – social media, link building, content marketing and more – to build a cohesive SEO strategy that aligns with your business goals.
Anchor’s digital marketing strategy services are designed to highlight what you can do better than your competition and show it off to the world. We know not every strategy is right for every brand, which is why we offer you so many choices. We can build your brand from scratch, identify your unique selling proposition (USP), figure out where you fit in the marketplace, research your target demographic, build a solid brand strategy and cut through the digital noise.
To find out more about our SEO and marketing services and become even better at what you do, contact the Anchor Digital team.
