If your website does not have a mobile version, then now it's the right time to go for it. Due to the emerging popularity of the mobile device, the search engines are now emphasizing over the mobile responsiveness and mobile versions of the website. It has now become essential from the SEO perspective if you want to stay in the race of online marketing.

Here, in this blog, we are going to discuss five important steps which will help you in optimizing your website for Google's mobile-first index -

1. Optimize the page speed: Google's site performance can be judged on the basis of the first two seconds, especially for eCommerce websites. Each of the online users now expects the websites to load faster and same is considered by  Google ranking algorithm. With a few steps, you can optimize the page loading speed of your website:

a. Optimize images - Compressing the size of heavy images and putting the correct size of them is the most effective tool for image optimization. It helps in fast page loading speed.

b. Minify code -  You must remove all the unnecessary characters from the source code of the website. However, make sure that it is not going to change the basic functionality. Clean coding results in faster loading speed of the web pages.

c. Leverage browser caching  - Browser caching help the webmaster to instruct the browsers about the resources. It stores web page resource files on the device and the page loading speed becomes fast when the user revisits the same web page. You can leverage browser caching by adding a little coding to the .htaccess file in your hosting panel.

d. Reduce redirects -  Unnecessary redirects can be a cause to slow down your website speed. So, keeping a low number of redirects links can boost up the speed of your website. 

2. Responsive Mobile design: Without having a responsive mobile design of your website, you cannot expect your website to rank on the top. Here are some tips to optimize mobile site design for making it responsive -

a. Never use Flash -  Flash is an outdated concept. Many of the users are unable to view a content due to unavailability of the flash player with their smartphones. It is advised to go for HTML5 or Java to represent your enchanting stuff.

b. Avoid pop-ups  - Overloaded pop-ups make the users irritated and it results in decreased ranking and higher bounce rate. So, avoid pop-ups on your mobile website as much as possible.

c. Finger-friendly approach  - You should make sure that the users on your mobile website are not facing the problem of accidental tapping. The design of your website should be finger friendly so that the users can tap and scroll throughout your web pages without any hassle.

3. Never block CSS, JavaScript or images: Earlier blocking CSS, JavaScript or images was the trend of website development. But now, with the emergence of advanced smartphones, there is no need of it. Smartphone's GoogleBot is efficient to handle your different CSS, images, and JavaScripts. Hiding them can be a cause for improper functioning of your website and the page will not appear properly on the mobile devices.

4. Local search optimization: Google's recent local search algorithm update 'Possum' reveals that the mobile websites should be local search friendly and it is significant for businesses to drive huge traffic to their websites. According to this algorithm report, there was 16 percent more local consumers who were mobile shoppers rather than the visitors based on laptop or computers.

Implementing relevant things from the perspective of local search can enhance the mobile visibility to a great extent -

• Local address in content
• Local address in the title tag
• Local address in the alt tags
• Local address in the H1 heading
• Business Name, Phone, and Address
• Location address in the meta description

5. On-page optimization: The title and descriptions of the web pages should be as per the norms of SERPS. It should be to the point and concise. It helps in getting increased click rate and ranking enhancement.

Summing Up - Google's focus on the mobile index is the result of the increasing user list of smartphones. So, in order to survive in the current competitive eCommerce and online business market, it is essential to have a trending mobile website to get the users' attention. For this purpose, mobile SEO services in India can help you in generating huge business revenues. You should consider availing the reliable mobile SEO services from a reputed SEO company in India like SynapseInteractive which is a leading name in SEO affairs.