We've been hearing a lot about mobile-first indexing lately, as the latest development in Google's continuing efforts to make the web more mobile- friendly and reflect user behavior trends.
In this post we will go through the basics of “mobile-first indexing" means, and what it means for the SEO efforts.
What is "mobile-first indexing''?
Mobile- first indexing means that the mobile version of your website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their index, and also for the baseline for how the decide the rankings.
It's called "mobile-first" as it's not mobile-only index. For example, if a particular site doesn't have a mobile-friendly version, the desktop site can still be included in the index. But the lack of mobile-friendly experience can have a negative effect on the rankings of the site. Hence, a site with a better mobile experience would receive a ranking boost even for searches on the desktop.
Back in 2015, we had Mobilegeddon ,when Google made mobile-friendliness a factor for ranking in the search results. Then, in 2018, we had Speed Update, when mobile speed was became a ranking criteria.
Starting July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is enabled by default by for all new websites.
What is Changing with the Mobile-first Index?
As more searches happen on mobile, Google wishes its index and results to represent the majority of the users. Google has started using the mobile version of the web as their primary search engine index.
When will this Fully Roll Out?
Google has already started testing their mobile-first index to some users. But it still may take some months for fully rolling out. Google said that they will push this out to more and more searches over time as they become more confident with the mobile-first index.
My mobile site has Less Content than my Desktop Site Should I be Worried About it?
Google did say that it will look at the mobile version of the site . If that has less content on a page X than the desktop version of page X, then Google will probably just see the mobile version with less content. This is the reason why Google suggests you to go with a responsive approach.
Mobile-first Index and Mobile Usability:
Mobile-first index and mobile usability are two different things. Your website can have mobile-usability issues yet it can be moved to mobile-first indexing. A site can or cannot have a usability from a mobile point of view, but it can still have all the content that we need for mobile-first indexing. For instance, take a PDF file, on mobile it will be quite difficult to navigate. The links will be hard to click on, also the text will be hard to read. But all of the text is still there , and we could perfectly index that with mobile-first indexing.
But this doesn't mean mobile indexing will not affect your site's mobile ranking. If you are offering poor experience, hiding content or images it is bound to affect your page's ranking .
Hence, focus on serving the best possible experience for your site users. Here is where, 'We Love Digital Marketing' plays a role. We are a digital marketing agency in Kolkata. We will help you design your websites keeping in account the things needed in today's time for a website to be amongst the top searches.
Tips for a Mobile Version of a Site:
- Valuable content.
- Structured Data.
- Metadata.
- Use Hreflang.
- Ensure that any links to site maps are accessible from the mobile version.
- Switchboard tags.
