Google switched to Mobile-First Indexing in March 2021 for all website preparation. But what is Mobile-first Indexing? What will this mean for your website’s ranking? How can you save your website’s rank?
For all the answers to these questions, you can continue reading. This blog will cover all things Google’s Mobile-First Index, and the 5 most important things to keep your website’s rankings high. So, let’s start.
Five Most Important Factors About Mobile-First Indexing
Did you know? Global Internet users make 90% of their mobile phones accessible via browsers online. The mobile version of a website is no longer your option. When developing any website or blog, it’s a must.
Mobile-First Indexing can seem complicated when you first start creating mobile-optimized content. However, it is easy to create and distribute. All aspects must be set up from the beginning.
What is the Google Mobile-First Index?
Google’s mobile-first index is the use of content from your mobile website by Google algorithms when ranking your pages within the SERPs. Every SEO must understand the mobile-first index internally and externally.
These are five key points you should know about mobile-first Indexing. They will help you to diagnose and fix any problems on your site.
You can check if the site is in mobile-first indexing.
Many sites now use mobile identification. However, it is important to verify that your site is listed on the Mobile-first index.
You can check this using the Google search console. Simply open Google Search Console, and then upload any URL to the Inspection Text Box at the top.
You will now see the “cover” URL result after submission. Check that result. You will see the “Crawled as Googlebot Smartphone” result. Congratulations! Your site has been added to Mobile-First.
Only One Index
Many believe that Google has two Indexes. One is for mobile and one is for desktop. It is false. There is only one index. The first index for mobile is Googlebot crawling and indexing your website, not the index for Google desktop. It is a fact that websites with the same content on their desktop and mobile sites will not experience any changes when they move to the original mobile directory.
Mobile-friendly URLs
Google’s simple-to-use website testing tool allows you to quickly and easily test the relevancy of your website. To begin, visit the website and click the submit button to enter your webpage URL. You will be able to view your mobile-friendly status after you submit your URL.
Google crawler inspects your site when you submit it. It will also find any problems during the test. It will show you if your website is mobile-friendly. If it is not, it will display the status of the page. However, if it is mobile-friendly, it will display the list of errors and issues.
Your website should offer the same experience on all mobile and desktop devices
Web designers and developers often focus their attention on mobile UX. This is a great idea.
The most common problem with this approach is the attempt to hide many desktop objects on mobile devices. This can lead to all kinds of problems when using mobile-first indexing.
Google recommends that websites provide the same information for all devices (mobile and desktop), which is important in terms of content.
Their first mobile reference guide stated that if your mobile site contains less content than your desktop website, you should consider updating it so that your primary content matches your desktop.
Nearly every link on your website comes from a mobile website. This is not all that is important. Mobile and desktop websites should have the following in common:
- Scheduled data
- Metadata
- Meta robots tags
- Placement
- Photos and videos
These features must be the same on all devices, mobile or desktop. This will avoid any problems that might arise during initial installation.
Mobile-First Indexing and Mobile Usability
It is important to remember that mobile usability and the initial mobile index are two different things.
Although your website might have issues with mobile functionality, it has been redirected back to the original mobile directory.
One extreme example is when you take a PDF file that is mobile. This can make it difficult to navigate. It will be difficult for you to click on links and the text will be difficult. The rest of the text will still be there and can be identified with a cell number.
Googlebot smartphones can crawl pages that are easy to use, as mentioned above. However, mobile page usage doesn’t affect the quality and design of your website.
While focusing your efforts on making your site the best it can be, consider the following things that Google knows are important for the first mobile index.
These are just a few of the many factors that affect Mobile-first Indexing. Hire the best web developer to solve all your website speed optimization problems and create a responsive website design and fully optimized website.
Conclusion
Passion and knowledge are required for website development. Mobile-First Indexing, which is 90% of internet users use for browsing, is vital nowadays. This is a crucial factor that will affect your ranking and impact the number of customers you have. Take a look at your website and see what it looks like. If you are looking to hire a WordPress developer for your site, do it. This will allow you to grow your website and attract the attention of your ideal clients.
