- The news about mobile first indexing has been buzzing since 2016, setting in motion a mad dash to outfit websites with all the mobile-friendly features needed to keep internet users browsing from phones and tablets. It may seem like this topic has been talked to death, but there’s a reason you’re seeing so much about it online; it’s a huge step in the new ranking system and could be a key to boosting business and traffic for all site owners.
After a 2-year wait, the time has come, and while most websites have jumped into the mobile pool with two feet, some haven’t even dipped a toe. This could be problematic, considering that approximately 57% of internet users are on a mobile device. If you’ve been meaning to get around to making your website more mobile-friendly, but aren’t sure where to start, this should give you some information on things you can do to break into the mobile first index.
What is Mobile First Indexing? When an internet user searches for something on engine’s like Google, there’s a way that the engine decides which sites to list first as a response to a query. In the past, this would have been based on everything from user interactions to content relevance. Now, mobile-friendly elements will take precedence over non-mobile sites, making it more important than ever before to get your mobile ducks in a row. Desktop-friendly only sites won’t see any movement in this update, as Google isn’t penalizing non-mobile sites, only promoting those that are.
What does this mean for your website if you have two, one for desktop viewing and one for mobile viewing? It means that the mobile site might be featured above the other, making it crucial that both sites include all the information you want to share with the public.
What Google is Looking For When it comes time for your site to be evaluated by the search engine giant, there are certain things Google is looking for to determine ranking.
URLs: While responsive web design and canonical AMP HMTL won’t make a difference in the mobile-first ranking scheme, when there are two URLs for your website, .com and .m will be evaluated differently, with the mobile site being ranked higher.
Dynamic Serving: This is when a website is setup to deliver content differently to different devices. For example, on a mobile device, pages may load differently, photos or videos might be removed, and other content is streamlined to better load on a small screen. Google will choose sites setup for this mobile viewing over those which have desktop only services.
When it’s time for your website to be evaluated, Google will send out a notification, so you know that the crawlers will be making an appearance. The Google crawlers go through the details of your site to determine whether there is more activity from mobile users or desktop users through file log data. This initial evaluation will tell you if there are problems for mobile viewers and then you can fix it to boost traffic and ranking between sites.
Making Content More Desirable Creating Just One Site: In the past, it made sense to have a standard site and a mobile site. Why? Because not everybody used their mobile devices to view the internet and the desktop sites could include larger graphics and web design to set a site apart from competitors. Now, having two sites might hinder more than it helps. Not only does it create two online spaces to monitor and update, but it poses problems when it comes to changes in search engine optimization, such as the latest mobile first indexing.
Combine all your content into one super-site, excluding only the content which won’t load properly. If you can view your site from a desktop and a mobile phone and have it look the same, and include all the same content, you know you’re in the clear.
Using Customizable Content: Not every screen displays content the same way, leaving some users viewing your site with half of the text disappearing off screen, or pictures not loading at all. Content which is designed to fit the space provided, no matter what time of device is being used is best for mobile-friendly indexing. This guarantees that whether it’s a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, your website visitors can see everything the same way.
Stream from a 3rd Party: It’s tempting to create and post content on your site through your own video embedding tools, but this takes up a lot of space and isn’t always properly deigned for mobile viewing. 3rd party sites, such as YouTube, already have their video streaming layout suited to match up with the type of device viewing it. This means that by merely embedding from this 3rd party provider, your content is viewable to all website visitors without needing to complicate your layout.
As of now, mobile-first indexing won’t take away from site owners who have yet to include mobile layouts into their design. If you only have a desktop site version available, your site won’t be penalized and dropped below competitors in the list of ranked pages within your category. However, this may not always be the case. With the world constantly evolving and mobile usage dominating the internet, it makes sense that at some point mobile-friendly sites will rank above all others. So, should you take the plunge and get moving on your mobile-friendly design? That’s up to you, but if you base your decision on the current market, it looks like a good idea.
dec 13 2018 +