Earlier this year, Google announced that it would be changing the way it indexes pages to a “mobile-first” algorithm, in keeping with the shift in how the majority of people use search.  In short; Google will be putting emphasis on mobile pages to assess how relevant and useful it is, rather than using desktop pages to determine how a website should be ranked.

But how will these changes affect your retail brand? Well, if your mobile pages are neglected, or don’t reflect their desktop counterparts, your rankings and organic traffic could drop. Luckily, there are steps you can take to ensure that your brand is ready for mobile-first indexing.

Make sure your website is responsive

A responsive website is the first fundamental step in making sure that you maintain (and improve) your rankings once the mobile-first indexing has been rolled out.

Responsive sites are designed to automatically respond to different screen sizes, to adapt to any device - be it mobile, tablet or desktop

Make sure your content is mobile-friendly

Engaging and relevant content is always important to attract visitors and keep them on the site, but it’s even more so on mobile. Think about your user experience; are your articles lengthy? Could they be broken up into more digestible formats? Would images or video content help to keep your readers engaged? The key to keeping readers on your page is to keep your content snappy and use different media types to draw them in.

Take a look at the speed of your site

Finally, just as with desktop, the speed of your site is a hugely influential ranking factor when it comes to mobile first indexing. A fast website will help to encourage longer sessions, a lower bounce rate and, hopefully, more customer conversions.

We can help! Give our fashion retail team a call today on, 0800 011 9715 or visit Fashion Digital Marketing.