For the last few years, Google is working on making the mobile-first indexing as the default behavior of the search engine. The initiative was first announced in 2016. Once again, this year, it announced that by September 2020, mobile-first indexing will become the default behavior of all sites.
After running a few tests, the company went all-in last year. By the end of last year, more than half of the web pages had been optimized to “mobile-first” with responsive web design. At present, the number has crossed 70%. Google said most of the websites are now ready for the new system.
The traditional Googlebot will crawl the desktop websites occasionally. This means the website owners might notice a spike in crawling by Google in the upcoming months. The company will be using two types of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) crawlers.
One of the crawlers will be used for the mobile smartphone users and the other one will look like the Chromium version used for the desktop site. For most of the websites, the shift should be seamless. If you are revealing only structured data on desktop only, it is time to turn it on for mobile too.
What is mobile-first indexing?
It simply means Google will use the mobile version of the content for ranking and indexing. Initially, Google index used the desktop version of a page to evaluate the relevance of a page with a query.
Since most of the users at present use mobile devices, Googlebot will crawl and index the pages with the smartphone agent. On 5th March 2020, Google confirmed on a post (Webmaster’s Blog), that from now on, the indexing will be mobile-first.
In simple terms, only one Googlebot (a mobile crawler) will be used for all types of pages.
Why is it important for you?
The algorithm is going to bring major changes in digital marketing and in ways the pages get ranked and searched. Note that, mobile usability and mobile indexing are separate things. You need to focus on both of them and opt for a responsive web design. The websites launched after 1st July 2019, are already mobile-first indexed.
For the rest of the websites, it will depend on Google whether it has indexed the mobile version of the desktop version. Earlier, only one of the versions was indexed and then shown to both the users (mobile and desktop).
Now, only the mobile version of a website is going to be indexed and shown. You cannot opt-out from here. If your website is not mobile-friendly, the users are going to see the messed up version, even when they are on desktop.
Thus, whether you cater to desktop users or mobile users, or both, you must have a mobile-friendly website.
How to reap the optimal benefits?
One thing you can rest assured that the Google search algorithm and indexing updates are the best SEO. Google is looking to offer the best services for the users. To reap the benefits of it, you need to do a few things.
1. Make sure that your website has a responsive web design. Your website should deliver the same experience for all the users on different devices.
- Keep the same content for both the desktop and mobile versions.
- Keep the same URLs. You don’t need to create separate URLs for desktop and mobile.
- Make sure that the Meta tags and headings are the same for both the versions.
- It is not necessary to create too much JavaScript because it creates roadblocks for crawling.
- The structured data needs to be the same.
- Let the Googlebot see and render the lazy-loaded content.
- Place the ads strategically so that it doesn’t block the mobile bots
- Use the high-quality images that will look in both the versions
- The URL of the image or video should not change when a page is loaded.
- The page statuses, like, “header status, success status, error page status, page not found status, etc. should be the same in both versions.
- The mobile site must be capable of handling an increased crawl rate.
2. Test the website for mobile-friendliness. Numerous tools can help you check the SEO and user-friendliness of your website. Also, you can do the speed test and use the search console tools from Google. Ensure the site load time is as less as possible for both the mobile and desktop versions.
3. In the search console, add both the mobile and desktop versions. It is better not to keep two different versions. A single responsive website that caters to all the device users is a much better option.
If you want to have a different version for mobile, then you have to add and verify both, mobile and desktop versions. Mobile-first indexing was being used for quite a long time. It is great to see how the web has evolved from the traditional desktop to the mobile for digital marketing.
Webmasters have helped in crawling & indexing to match how users interact with the web. We appreciate all the hard work that Google put in all these years to ensure a smooth transition to mobile-friendly interactions.
Is your website optimized to be mobile-friendly? To avail a responsive web design, get in touch with the professionals at Skyram technologies here.
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