{"id":7652,"date":"2018-03-27T10:41:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T07:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.x-cart.com\/?p=7509"},"modified":"2024-12-25T19:18:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-25T16:18:03","slug":"stop-being-mobile-friendly-be-mobile-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/mobile-first.html","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Stop Being Mobile-Friendly and Go Mobile-First"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It\u2019s been almost 3 years since Google rolled out its mobile-friendly algorithm which gave an additional boost to mobile-optimised websites and the shivers to webmasters\u2019 spines.Ugh.. ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, on November 04, 2016&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2016\/11\/mobile-first-indexing.html\" target=\"_blank\">it announced<\/a>&nbsp;the so-called \u201cmobile-first\u201d indexing, making the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/mobile-commerce-101.html\">mobile eCommerce experience<\/a>&nbsp;even more crucial to organic search performance. According to this new rule, mobile users are now the #1 priority and the desktop web is an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what Google Webmaster Central Blog says:<\/p>\n\n\n<link  rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"\/wp-content\/themes\/miniflat\/build\/css\/elements\/post\/quote.css?var=1742284057\" \/><blockquote class=\"gb-quote gb-quote--photo\">\n            <div class=\"gb-quote__photo p-blog__image-shadow\">\n                <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24321\/phan2.jpg 1x\" alt=\"Doantam Phan\" class=\"gb-quote__img\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                            <footer class=\"gb-quote__name\">\n                    <cite>Doantam Phan, Product Manager at Google<\/cite>\n                <\/footer>\n                    <\/div>\n        <div class=\"gb-quote__content\">\n                <p  class=\"gb-quote__text\">To make our results more useful, we\u2019ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site\u2019s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. We understand this is an important shift in our indexing and it\u2019s one we take seriously.<\/p>            <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p>Sure thing, Google was not going to stop there. On March 24th 2018, after a year and a half of thorough testing and experimentation, Google team&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2018\/03\/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html\">officially announced<\/a>&nbsp;that they began rolling out the mobile-first indexing to more sites. The long-looked-for mobile first index is expected to go live later this summer, in July 2018, to be exact.<\/p>\n\n\n<link  rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"\/wp-content\/themes\/miniflat\/build\/css\/elements\/post\/quote.css?var=1742284057\" \/><blockquote class=\"gb-quote gb-quote--photo\">\n            <div class=\"gb-quote__photo p-blog__image-shadow\">\n                <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/14095\/Fan-Zhang.jpg 1x\" alt=\"Fan Zhang\" class=\"gb-quote__img\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                            <footer class=\"gb-quote__name\">\n                    <cite>Fan Zhang, Software Engineer at Google<\/cite>\n                <\/footer>\n                    <\/div>\n        <div class=\"gb-quote__content\">\n                <p  class=\"gb-quote__text\">Having said that, we continue to encourage webmasters to make their content mobile-friendly. We do evaluate all content in our index \u2014 whether it is desktop or mobile \u2014 to determine how mobile-friendly it is. We\u2019ll continue to monitor and evaluate this change carefully.<\/p>            <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p>Indeed, this is a huge change in indexing. And even if you have already coded your fingers to the bone to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/mobile-commerce-101.html\">make your store perfectly optimized for mobile<\/a>, there are still things your business needs to be prepared to. In order to make your life easier, we\u2019ve thoroughly scrutinized&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2016\/11\/mobile-first-indexing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Google\u2019s recommendations<\/a>, picked the most relevant and adapted them for X-Cart users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2>\n            How can I check if my store is at least \u201cmobile-friendly\u201d?    <\/h2>\n\n\n<h3>\n            Google it (not literally)    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24324\/mobile-not-friendly-uClU6g.jpg 1x\" alt=\"Not mobile friendly\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>To make sure that your page meets the mobile-friendly criteria, run Google\u2019s \u201cmobile-friendly\u201d test. This is an easy thing. Simply copy &amp; paste your website address&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/test\/mobile-friendly\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>&nbsp;and wait until robots assess your website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a webmaster, you can open&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6101188?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\">Mobile Usability Report<\/a>&nbsp;to get a full list of mobile usability issues across your site. If there are such components as flash-based bars and pop-up banners; or clickable elements are not far enough apart to be easily tapped on; or you make your users scroll horizontally \u2014 the test is failed.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3>\n            Your X-Cart version can give you a hint    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba-p500.webp 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.webp 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba-p500.jpg 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.jpg 2x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24323\/xcart-version2-CqrDba.png 1x\" alt=\"X-Cart version\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>Login to your store\u2019s back-end to find out which version of X-Cart you are currently using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you own any&nbsp;<strong>X-Cart 5<\/strong>&nbsp;edition (Business, Multivendor, Ultimate or even a free one), give a high five \u2014 your store is mobile-ready out-of-the-box. You have either a mobile or (if your version is higher than 5.1) a fully-responsive skin installed. Anyway, it\u2019s ok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Registered your X-Cart license more than 4 years ago? Then you are most likely still using our&nbsp;<strong>Classic<\/strong>&nbsp;edition. Here you could either buy a mobile skin or install X-Cart\u2019s Ideal Responsive theme, that easily adapts to your customer\u2019s screen, so lucky you are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But. If the version is earlier than 4.4, then your website is unlikely to be mobile-friendly or responsive at all, alas. This is where you have to drop everything and finally start thinking about your users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Still not sure?<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/contact\" target=\"_blank\">Contact us<\/a>\u00a0at any time, we\u2019ll help you to find out whether your store is ready for mobile era or not.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2>\n            Ok. How can I make my store \u201cmobile-first\u201d now?    <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are four steps you can take to optimize your site for Google\u2019s mobile-first index:<\/p>\n\n\n<h3>\n            1. Analyze your code and improve it    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM-p500.webp 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.webp 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM-p500.jpg 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.jpg 2x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24325\/structured-data-testing-tool-eQ1rpM.png 1x\" alt=\"structured data testing tool\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>The first thing you should do to make sure your store meets the latest Google requirements is to test your store\u2019s data to the full. These 3 free tools can help you greatly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"checklist darkblue gb-list__check gb-list__check--blue wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/6062598\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">robots.txt tester<\/a>&nbsp;to ensure your mobile version is accessible to Google bots and indexed properly. If there are multiple versions of the same page in your store, you should add the&nbsp;<strong>rel=\u201ccanonical\u201d tag<\/strong>&nbsp;to help Googlebot index a specific version. Or how else will search engines guess it?<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Type the URLs of both desktop and mobile versions into the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/structured-data\/testing-tool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Structured Data Testing Tool<\/a>&nbsp;to compare their structured markup. If the content and markup of your site is different on mobile and desktop, you should fix it. But avoid adding any markup that isn\u2019t relevant for mobile sites.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And yes, if you\u2019ve already verified your desktop version, don\u2019t forget to do the same&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/webmasters\/answer\/35179\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">for mobile version<\/a>&nbsp;as well. It\u2019s crucial from an SEO perspective.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are an SEO enthusiast and your inquisitive mind hungers for more, you can read this detailed&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/mobile-sites\/mobile-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\">mobile SEO guide<\/a>. It is written by Google specs and is made to help search engines understand your site better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And here&#8217;s another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/ecommerce-seo.html\">guide on eCommerce SEO<\/a> created by the X-Cart team. It covers everything from keywords research to local SEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/seo-consulting.html\" target=\"_blank\">SEO Guru<\/a>&nbsp;will be thrilled to give you some tips on this as well.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3>\n            2. Make sure your store loads fast on mobile    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy-p500.webp 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.webp 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy-p500.jpg 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.jpg 2x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24322\/page-load-graph-k3YqJy.png 1x\" alt=\"Page load\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>Back in 2010,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2010\/04\/using-site-speed-in-web-search-ranking.html\" target=\"_blank\">Google reported<\/a>&nbsp;that website performance would become a ranking factor. And while 7 years ago speed of mobile pages didn\u2019t impact mobile rankings, now it does. Greatly. So, make sure your store is speedy enough to meet the needs of our forever hustling society. Here are a few ways to do it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"checklist darkblue gb-list__check gb-list__check--blue wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ask your hosting provider to&nbsp;<strong>upgrade your server PHP version<\/strong>&nbsp;to PHP 7 (don\u2019t forget to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/x-cart-security-speed-webinar-recording-php-7-dirty-cow.html#xc4patches\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">patch it<\/a>&nbsp;if necessary). It will make both your store\u2019s desktop and mobile versions as quick as lightning. If your hosting provider can\u2019t sort this out, you are always welcome to try X-Cart&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/hosting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fully-managed VPS Hosting<\/a>. Our hosting specs will make your store fly.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Smaller images<\/strong>&nbsp;should drastically speed up page load time, so take time to reduce the size of your product pics.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/speed-up-website.html\">Speed up your store<\/a>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<strong>minifying CSS\/HTML coding<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 code that is easier to read is also simpler to interpret.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Endless&nbsp;<strong>redirects<\/strong>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<strong>disabled browser caching<\/strong>&nbsp;can significantly slow down the loading experience. Get rid of redirects and enable caching.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<h3>\n            3. Rethink your mobile design from the ground up    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng-p500.webp 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.webp 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng-p500.jpg 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.jpg 2x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24326\/mobile-first-hQdbng.png 1x\" alt=\"Mobile first design\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>Mobile first isn\u2019t just about making a web page fit a smaller screen. It\u2019s a bit more. The first thing you have to do is to forget that the desktop environment exists and turn your attention towards the mobile user. He is most likely running somewhere at the moment, browsing your store on-the-go, on a small screen, with unstable internet connection and the sun, dazzling his eyes, causing poor visibility. Not an easy task, hah? Here are a few points you should remember going mobile first:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"checklist darkblue gb-list__check gb-list__check--blue wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Humanize your store\u2019s navigation<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 it should be clearly marked and easily used. Try to use off-canvas category menu instead of a fixed one. Add expandable widgets to hide infrequently used elements, like \u201cContact us\u201d form or chat button. Use AJAX calls to let your users interact with the content without refreshing the page.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Design for the finger<\/strong>, as the finger is much wider than a mouse cursor. You need to enlarge touch targets and make all clickable design elements easier to tap. Extra taps are annoying. And there\u2019s no room for error.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid huge animated pictures and tiny font-size<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 complex flash-based graphics clutter small screens and small texts are barely readable. Instead of flash, you can use HTML 5 or Java, they work faster.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Get rid of pop-ups and hovers<\/strong>&nbsp;\u2014 there\u2019s no place for extra blocks and no hover control for fingertips yet, so don\u2019t use it.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Configure a viewport<\/strong>&nbsp;and size your content to it. Images shouldn\u2019t go offscreen, text blocks shouldn\u2019t be cut off. Otherwise, your users will have to spend extra two seconds to scroll left or right, and horizontal scrolling is a \u201ctaboo\u201d for mobile users.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<link  rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"\/wp-content\/themes\/miniflat\/build\/css\/elements\/post\/quote.css?var=1742284057\" \/><blockquote class=\"gb-quote gb-quote--photo\">\n            <div class=\"gb-quote__photo p-blog__image-shadow\">\n                <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 599px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.jpg 1x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(min-width: 600px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24327\/SarahMackenzie.jpg 1x\" alt=\"Sarah Mackenzie\" class=\"gb-quote__img\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                            <footer class=\"gb-quote__name\">\n                    <cite>Sarah Mackenzie, SEO Director in Traverse City, MI<\/cite>\n                <\/footer>\n                    <\/div>\n        <div class=\"gb-quote__content\">\n                <p  class=\"gb-quote__text\">I just tweeted Gary Illyes about this, and he confirmed that even though Google will index desktop content, desktop versions will be devalued in favor of the mobile version. So if your mobile version is smaller than desktop, that\u2019s a big problem. ?<\/p>            <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p>If some of the above points seem too complex for you, welcome to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/contact\" target=\"_blank\">apply to our design experts<\/a>. They are always ready to help.<\/p>\n\n\n<h3>\n            4. Prioritize your content    <\/h3>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-img__figure-container\">\n        <figure class=\"gb-img__figure\">\n                            <picture><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs-p500.webp 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.webp 2x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs-p500.jpg 1x, https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.jpg 2x\" type=\"image\/jpg\" media=\"(max-width: 420px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.webp 1x\" type=\"image\/webp\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><source  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.png 1x\" type=\"image\/png\" media=\"(min-width: 421px)\" \/><img decoding=\"async\"  width=\"673\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/img\/24328\/content-first-3gmWrs.png 1x\" alt=\"Content first\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/picture>                                <\/figure>\n    <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p>The mobile-first approach is tightly correlated with user-friendliness. In 99 out of 100 cases mobile users come to your store to take a certain action \u2014 learn info, buy a product, contact sales and so on. So let them enjoy this process!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"checklist darkblue gb-list__check gb-list__check--blue wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Choose the most important elements<\/strong>&nbsp;and display them higher, delete unused tools. Don\u2019t let them distract their attention.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Focus on content<\/strong>, not on design. Sort all the information into primary, secondary and tertiary content. Remove irrelevant blocks.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Make sure your content answers questions in no time<\/strong>. That\u2019s what your users are there for.<br>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<h2>\n            Final thoughts    <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When you end playing with your store, don\u2019t forget to test it in a real device \u2014 iPhone mobile phone or Android tablet. Tap through pages. Is it easy to navigate? Are the elements loaded and clicked flawlessly? Have a look at your content \u2014 is it readable on a small screen? Test it.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2>\n            Summary    <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a lot of roads to make your store \u201cmobile-first\u201d with X-Cart. You can go responsive or apply a perfect mobile skin, tweak your titles and meta tags or improve your page load speed. If the do-it-yourself method is not your cup of tea, we are always ready to assist you. Contact us if you want your site to befriend Google and comply with the latest \u201cmobile-first\u201d tendencies.<\/p>\n\n\n    <div class=\"gb-btns__wrapper\">\n                                    <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/contact\" class=\"btn btn--lg\" target=\"_blank\">Make my store \u201cmobile-first\u201d, please<\/a>                        <\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, what\u2019s holding you back? Don\u2019t let \u201cmobilegeddon\u201d swallow you alive and take action immediately!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been almost 3 years since Google rolled out its mobile-friendly algorithm which gave an additional boost to mobile-optimised websites and the shivers to webmasters\u2019 spines.Ugh.. ? Then, on November 04, 2016&nbsp;it announced&nbsp;the so-called \u201cmobile-first\u201d indexing, making the&nbsp;mobile eCommerce experience&nbsp;even more crucial to organic search performance. According to this new rule, mobile users are now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11666,11734],"tags":[33,45,32],"class_list":["post-7652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design","category-platform","tag-design","tag-performance","tag-seo"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.2.1 (Yoast SEO v19.6.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mobile-Friendly, or Mobile-First? How It All Impacts Your SEO | X-Cart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On March 24th, 2018, Google team officially announced that they began rolling out the mobile-first indexing to more sites. We explain how it may impact your SEO strategy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.x-cart.com\/blog\/mobile-first.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why You Should Stop Being Mobile-Friendly and Go Mobile-First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On March 24th, 2018, Google team officially announced that they began rolling out the mobile-first indexing to more sites. 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