What is Mobile-First?
Mobile-first is a design and development strategy where the mobile version of a website or app is created first, before expanding to larger screens. Google has been primarily indexing the mobile version since 2018 (Mobile-First Indexing). Benefits: Focus on essentials (limited space forces prioritization), better performance (optimized for weaker devices), future-proof (mobile traffic dominates). Technically: CSS starts with styles for small screens, media queries expand for larger ones. Progressive enhancement instead of graceful degradation. Over 60% of web traffic is now mobile.
Key Points
- Mobile version designed first
- Google: Mobile-First Indexing since 2018
- Focus on essentials due to limited space
- Better performance than desktop-first
- 60%+ of traffic is mobile
- Progressive enhancement instead of degradation
Practical Example
“Since we develop mobile-first, we no longer have mobile usability issues in Search Console.”