What is Mobile-First Indexing for SEO?

What You Need to Know About Google’s Latest Announcement

If you haven’t heard Google’s latest announcement on mobile-first indexing, here’s the crux of what you need to know. Google has begun focusing on giving users the best experience thorough mobile-first indexing. If you haven’t optimized your site for mobile yet, this isn’t the death knell of websites designed for desktop. But it does mean that Google has taken another step on the road to prioritizing the user experience for mobile and other devices. If you weren’t paying attention to the importance of mobile search before, you might consider how it will impact your search rankings going forward.

What is Mobile-First Indexing?

Mobile-first indexing is a fundamental shift in how Google’s search engine crawls and ranks websites. In this approach, Google will predominantly use the mobile version of a website’s content for indexing and ranking, rather than the desktop version. This change reflects the growing trend of mobile device usage for web browsing and acknowledges the importance of delivering a seamless mobile experience to users.

Mobile-first indexing aims to ensure that websites are mobile-friendly and provide users with a consistent and optimized experience across various devices. As a result, websites that prioritize mobile usability and responsive design tend to perform better in search engine rankings. Effectively catering to the needs of mobile users, is a clear signal to Google that a website is committed to delivering relevant and accessible content to an increasingly mobile-centric audience.

The Shift From Desktop to Mobile

Google will index mobile sites separately from the desktop version. If your site has two different versions, one for mobile and one for desktop, the mobile version will be indexed first.

Prior to this rollout, Google was using the desktop version of website content to rank it according to search terms used. And prior to 2016, the only site they were looking at for content was the desktop version. This caused problems when the mobile version didn’t contain the same content. The site would rank because of its robust desktop content, yet when the user would pull up the page on their mobile device, a lot of this content would be missing.

To solve this issue, Google will now evaluate mobile sites for their actual content, and then index and rank them accordingly—and the mobile sites will be indexed separately from the desktop version. Even though the sites will be indexed as individuals, Google itself will only have one index they refer to. Which means if your site has two different versions, one for mobile and one for desktop, the mobile version will be indexed first. If your site only has a desktop version, it will still be ranked as usual.

What you need to know about mobile-first indexing:

• Sites are being evaluated individually. Once a mobile site meets best practice requirements, it will be migrated over to the index. The mobile version will not be migrated over before it’s ready.
• If your website isn’t well optimized for a positive mobile user experience, it could have a seriously negative impact on how it performs in search results. What’s more is that a poor mobile experience can even prevent you from appearing in results at all.
• There’s no change for a site that only has a desktop version. If you haven’t optimized for mobile, your mobile version will be identical to your desktop version, so there’s no change.
• If you have a responsive website design (your site adjusts for screen size but content is the same), there will be no change. Since your content and markup is the same on both devices, they will both be indexed, and your mobile version will gain precedence.
• If you’re using dynamic serving or separate URLs based on the mobile devices used, the best protocol is to make certain that the same content is available on both versions.
• If you have put AMP (accelerated mobile pages) stories to use, they will still rank well, but mobile sites will still be the priority in Google’s ranking system—and they should be your priority, too.

Key Takeaways from Google’s Mobile First Announcement

Probably the best quote we’ve heard about Google’s mobile-first indexing came from Google themselves:

“With mobile-first indexing, Google is like a single library that is now beginning to replace print books (desktop pages) with ebooks (mobile pages). Over time, the library will be mostly ebooks (mobile). But print books (desktop) will always remain part of the mix in the library.”

If you haven’t paid attention to optimizing for a mobile-friendly site, now is the time to make sure that your users are getting the best mobile performance experience from their devices. This isn’t a process you should rush, though.

What was once a luxury and bonus SEO strategy is now a necessity. With the majority of users accessing the web via mobile devices, ensuring a seamless mobile experience is paramount. However, it’s essential to approach the mobile-first index transition thoughtfully and methodically, as rushing the process may lead to suboptimal results. By prioritizing mobile-friendly websites with SEO best-practices, businesses can stay ahead in the digital landscape and continue to cater to the evolving preferences of their audience.

Ready to Optimize Your Site for Mobile-First Indexing?

If you want to make sure that your high-quality content ranks well and performs in this new mobile-first indexing landscape, it’s important that your mobile SEO efforts are on point. You don’t want to just rush the effort and wind up with mobile content that don’t capture the same usability as your desktop design traditionally offers.

At Zero Gravity, our expert digital marketers will evaluate your current site and help you develop the right mobile optimization plan. Contact us today to enhance your mobile user experience.