A study revealed that over 90% of people perform Google searches from their mobile devices. Therefore, Google has started using mobile versions of a site’s content for indexing and ranking. So, it has become crucial for site owners to understand what mobile-first indexing means and its impact on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The Googlebot or the main crawler used by Google now prioritizes your website's mobile version instead of the desktop version while indexing and ranking the page. This is called mobile-first indexing. This indexing system is enabled by default for all new websites. The older and existing websites are also slowly switched to this evaluation process. So, it is time to create a mobile-friendly site.
If you are still ignoring your mobile site, the users can have a stellar experience which may adversely affect your performance in the search results. Even with a great desktop page, your site may not appear in the search results. Therefore, you need to work on your mobile website.
Here are some of the best practices to optimise your website for Google’s mobile-first indexing.
The website created using a responsive design can adapt to multiple screens- adjusts its size, rearranges elements, and hides unnecessary content according to the device. So, instead of creating different URLs for varying devices, pick a responsive theme for your site that will work well in both. This design pattern is easiest to implement and maintain.
As Google focuses on the mobile version of a website while indexing, like the desktop version it should contain all the crucial information. It is a common mistake to create smaller websites for mobile versions. This was done as the mobile data used to be slow and it takes long to load a website on the mobile device. However, the speed has improved. The design has to be implemented in such a fashion that the content is similar and there is no difficulty in accessing it from any devices.
The Googlebot must be able to crawl your website if you want it to appear in its search engine ranking. The crawler must be able to locate your mobile page, run the code, and access your content. Here are some tips that you can follow to make sure that your mobile site is crawlable and indexable:
Images are an integral part of many websites. However, images take up a lot of bandwidth which creates an issue especially while designing for mobile devices. Therefore, it is essential to optimize the images and other media if you think these are important for your site traffic. Here are some tips that may be helpful:
If your website already has separate URLs for the desktop and mobile versions, here are some of the practices that you need to follow.
It is best if you keep the same URLs for both versions. By keeping it the same, you can avoid doing additional work to optimize separate versions.
Mobile-first indexing will stay as long as people use their smartphones for Google searching. It seems the trend will continue. So, you need to work on your mobile site. Just like how you have worked for the desktop version until now to make it rank higher in the search results, you have to put the same effort into mobile SEO.
Mobile First Indexing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Mobile SEO
