You may have heard a lot about Google’s Mobile-First Indexing and their efforts to make the web more mobile friendly and reflect user end user’s behavior trends.
There is some confusion about what this means for the average business owner. Do you need to be worried about it? In this article will go through the most important things you need to know about mobile-first indexing and what you can do about it so that you’re not left behind in the search results.
What is Google’s Mobile-First Indexing?
In November 2016 Google announced its Mobile-First Index to address the shift that was taking place in the way people search on Google. With advances in mobile technology, most people are now using Google on their mobile devices. Google’s ranking systems were based around a desktop computer and not a mobile device. Since that time there has been a massive change towards mobile-first indexing.
In one study it showed that 3 out of every 5 searches happen on a mobile device and that mobile devices far outpaces desktops as the number one method of searching.
Another interesting fact is that a full 77% of mobile searches now happen when a person is at home or at work. Since people are more likely to use their mobile devices to search on Google, the mobile version of your website has become very important to Google.
They now view that as the primary version for ranking in both mobile and on the desktop.
According to Google, that means if your site is optimized for mobile and you rank well on mobile then you will rank well on a desktop search. On the other hand, if your site is not mobile optimized it doesn’t perform well on mobile then your rankings will drop both on mobile and on desktop searches.
All this really means is that Google will be determining where it places your business website in the index based on the mobile version of your site. It’s important to note that the mobile-first index is not a separate index. It means that Google gives priority to mobile to determine how it will place you in the index. Google only has one index from which it serves the results.
What should I do about mobile-first indexing?
First, don’t panic. If you are using a modern responsive design, then according to Google your mobile and desktop versions are identical. This new algorithm will not affect your website content rankings. However, if your mobile site is not based on responsive design or it lags where it fails to completely load on mobile devices, this will hurt your rankings.
What is Google looking for on your website?
The key components that will help your site in Google’s mobile-first indexing are:
- Responsive Design – This is the #1 biggest ranking factor to help you with the mobile-first index.
- The User Experience on a Mobile Device – Your design should be easy to use, even with fat fingers. It should implement easy to click links and buttons.
- Your Site Speed – Remember the popular phrase “Ain’t nobody got time for that”. That is especially true when browsing the web on your mobile device. Page speed and load time play a vital role in delivering the best user experience.
- No Pop Ups or Flash – Having these interstitials can get your website penalized by Google. They are a big no-no.
The Bottom Line is Ranking Without Mobile Is Going To Be Hard…
Top 10 Suggestions Checklist To Get The Best Results For Your Website
- Prepare Your Website For Google’s Mobile First Indexing. Take an inventory of your website.
- Do A Mobile Friendliness Test. Google has a free tool to check the mobile-friendliness of your site.
- Think About The User Experience On Mobile.
- Optimize Your Content For Mobile – Having long articles on mobile might not provide the best user experience.
- Rethink Your Articles for a mobile audience
- Use Multiple Types Of Content that can be consumed on a mobile device.
- Don’t Use Flash. – No brainer…
- Review Your Mobile Snippets. – Double check your analytics to see where most of your traffic comes from. Optimize your mobile snippets to attract more visitors.
- Optimize Your Mobile Website. – Consider your site speed and implementing AMP Pages (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for important content that will be consumed on mobile.
- Migrate All High-Quality Content From Your Desktop Site To Your Mobile Site
- Check Your Metadata, Schema Markup, and Social Metadata.
- Make Sure Your Server Capacity Can Handle The Uptick In Additional Crawl.
- Submit Your Mobile Optimized Website To Google Search Console.
Additional Questions
Is Google’s mobile-first index live and affecting my site now?
ANSWER
For the most part yes. Google started slowly testing this back in the summer of 2017. It is now in full effect, even notifying user within Google Search console.
Will Google only use my mobile site to determine my ranking’s?
ANSWER
What this means is your mobile version of your website will be considered the primary version when it comes to how rankings are determined. However, your desktop version could be taken into consideration if you don’t have a mobile version of a page. There are circumstances where the desktop version will still be used for determining ranking.
You will still need to track both versions as rankings can vary based on user behaviors and other factors.
What if I don’t have a mobile version of my site?
ANSWER
If your site is not mobile-friendly, or you do not have a separate mobile version, it can still be indexed. This could hurt your business though, because you may not rank as well in comparison to mobile-friendly websites. This may be perceived by Google as poor user experience when compared to other related sites. This can have a negative impact on your overall desktop rankings since Google will be using its mobile crawler to look at your site.
You can start by running a FREE mobile first audit of your website below. This will analyze your website code and then identify all the areas that do not meet Google’s new standards. The results will give you a clear picture of what is needed.
