Ok folks so here’s the thing. Our last SEO Meetup of the year was held two weeks ago, (on the 23rd of November to be exact), and if you didn’t attend, you totally blew it!
Why? Well, simply because you missed A LOT of stuff about mobile-first thinking and Big Digital 2017, and although I’m prone to exaggeration, this time I’m being completely honest. I promise.
Thankfully, I’m around to give you a quick re-cap.
First off, let’s take a moment to thank the brains behind the combo of pizza and beer; it really does make all the difference. As always, this delicious treat featured at the Meetup and was gobbled up enthusiastically by all 19 attendees as they got to know each other.
Mobile First Thinking
The first keynote speaker to grace the stage and preach on all things mobile was Kwasi Studios’ Tech Ninja Jack Clark. With beer in hand and an air of confidence and swagger, you would have been hard-pressed to tell this was Jack’s first time out to bat as a speaker. The topic of conversation? Google’s Mobile-First Index.
For those out of the loop, Google’s Mobile-First Index is the tech giant’s response to users’ mass migration from humble desktop to the all-conquering smartphone. With over half of users now choosing mobile as their search weapon of choice, it is time for Google to adapt its indexing to mirror this trend by prioritising mobile in its search results.
That’s right friends – Google will first look at the mobile version of your website when looking for ranking signals, punishing those who have yet to optimise for mobile and rewarding those sites which make our hotline bling.
But how does one simply optimise for mobile I hear you ask? We’ll let tech-savvy Jack take it from here.
“Look at your site speed. We know speed is a very important ranking factor. Humans are impatient, we want things now and search engine crawlers are the same! If your mobile site isn’t quick, you’re not going to get as many pages ranked on Google. Ideally, we need to aim for under half a second.”
To do this Jack suggests three simple tricks – optimise your site’s images, minify your code and allow caching on your site.
“Doing these simple things should get your mobile site speed up and benefit ranking your signals with Google”
Jack, you can raise the proverbial bat my friend, you have taught us well!
You might be thinking at this stage – Lordy, Lord! Maybe I should have come to SEO Meet Up 23? Well, thankfully we have you covered. You can view Jack’s entire talk on the Kwasi Studios Facebook page to get the nitty gritty details on mobile site optimisation.
After Jack happily indulged his round of applause, our very own Nathan Seppelt took centre stage. He’s all about content, so it was no surprise that his presentation focused on mobile-first .
As mobile search becomes more and more relevant, it’s even more important to keep content relevant, useful and make sure it resonates with your audience. How does one achieve this you may ask?
Nathan says that first, you have to know your audience, then practice, then finally review and improve.
Big Digital 2017
Now listen carefully folks, because this part is super important.
Firstly, Big Digital Adelaide 2017 will now be held on the 8th and 9th of May 2017, to avoid clashes with some big events in Sydney and to give you time to recover from ANZAC day.
May 10th (for workshops) is still open for discussion, so if you really enjoyed those last year, make sure you reach out to Sha Menz to let her know and suggest any topics you would like her to cover.
Secondly, word on the street from Sha is that those long-awaited videos (darn those technical difficulties) from this year’s Big Digital are expected before Christmas. Woohoo!
Finally, super early bird tickets for Big Digital Adelaide 2017 are still available for $329.00 until New Year’s Eve 2016, so if you’ve been waiting for a sign to buy one, this is it.
So, in a nutshell:
- Pizza and beer rock!
- Make sure you understand Google’s new mobile-first index or else…
- While you’re at it, be sure to implement mobile-first thinking when creating your content.
- Big Digital 2017 dates have been moved to the 8th and 9th of May 2017.
- Buy your super early bird Big Digital 2017 ticket today for only $329.
P.S. We’re also looking to take this Meetup in a new direction next year (discuss more varied topics, invite guest speakers, etc..), so if you have any cool ideas, or if you want to speak, reach out and let us know using any of our social media channels. And be sure to keep up to date with the Kwasi blog for all things SEO and digital marketing in the future.
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