For webpages, companies, and marketers, ranking high in search engines is a top priority. SEO content, advertisements, and other strategies have become the main focal point for marketers and web developers alike. So what does the switch to mobile-first indexing mean for marketing strategists and web developers? Money, and lots of it! (If you can do it right, that is.)
Don’t get it twisted, though, this doesn’t mean that there will be two different indexes. It simply means that mobile searches will be prioritized over traditional desktop searches. Additionally, this comes in the wake of recent findings confirming that more and more web searches are starting to occur on mobile devices.
Mobile-First Indexing When?
With the constant talk of Google changing its algorithms, it’s starting to look like the switch to mobile indexing has taken hold. Marketers should be taking heed if they want to keep their traffic up. Mobile usage has been surpassing desktop use for some time now, so this change has been a long time coming. Marketers and web developers all over the world are preparing for it.
What Google has kept under wraps is the impact that mobile-first indexing will have on a website’s search rankings. Nevertheless, it is always a good idea to get your websites mobile-ready in preparation.
Stay Safe with a Mobile-Friendly Website
Playing it safe by making your website mobile-friendly is one of the smartest decisions you can make right now, as we await this change in indexing. In fact, Google has made it easy to establish whether or not your website is mobile-friendly with this handy tool. Concerned about usability issues, such as interstitial pop-ups, tiny fonts, or touch features too close together? Google is offering to help you out with that too.
Bots Need to See Your Website Accurately
Do your mobile and desktop site versions have different URLs? Double-check to make sure that Google renders both properly. There is a tool for this too, of course. It’s important to utilize it and get the most out of your desktop and mobile websites. Fetch as Google is a great way to check this out. Don’t forget to create a relationship between your desktop and mobile websites!
Make Sure Your Mobile Website Has Good Content
Keywords are just as important on your mobile website as they are on the desktop. Many web developers and marketers choose to keep their mobile sites simple, but this can prove ineffective. Google will be ranking the content that appears on your mobile site with its new index.
Keep Things Speedy
To improve your site’s performance, try to cut down on load times and speed up mobile browsing. Again, there is a tool for this to help ensure that your website is running smoothly. Check it out to test the speed, diagnose the issues, and implement the fixes.
A Final Note on Mobile-First Indexing
If your website has a robust blog/content hub, be sure to implement the Accelerated Mobile Pages framework. This speeds up the content being served on your mobile browser, a crucial feature when mobile-first indexing hits the web.
Keep in mind that with this new indexing, nothing has been set in stone by Google… yet. It’s better to be safe than sorry, though. Try your best to stay ahead of the game! Prime yourself, your company, and your websites to switch to a mobile-first world.