How does mobile first indexing work and what is its impact on SEO?
Mobile first indexing is a trend in website development where designing a website for smartphones, tablets and mobile devices takes priority over desktops. First of all, it is mandatory for you to have a responsive web design and indexing just means that the mobile version of your website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their index, and the baseline for how they determine rankings. It is called “mobile-first” because it’s not a mobile-only index. Say, if a site doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version, the desktop site can still be included in the index. But the lack of a mobile-friendly experience could impact negatively on the rankings of that site, and a site with a better mobile experience would potentially receive a ranking boost even for searches on desktop.
WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?
Now, if you are thinking what should you do about mobile first indexing then let me tell you there is no need to panic or worry about anything as such. According to Google’s own latest guidance on the topic https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2016/11/mobile-first-indexing.html , if your website is responsive or otherwise identical in its desktop and mobile versions, you may not have to do anything differently.
WHAT ARE THE STUFFS YOU NEED TO FOCUS ON?
- Content: The mobile first indexing demands a high valuable content. Make sure your mobile version has all the high-quality, valuable content that exists on your desktop site. The simple steps you can follow are:
- Write short paragraphs
- Write short sentences
- Avoid the use of jargons or unnecessary words
- Try to use short sentence
- No need of repetition of words
- Try to convey your message in a short and precise manner.
- Organized Data: URLs shown within structured data on mobile pages should be the mobile version of the URL. Avoid adding unnecessary structured data if it isn’t relevant to the specific content of a page.
- Know your target audience: You should be clear in mind with what type of audiences you need to target.
- Creative Pages: There are 2 most important pages of your website that plays a major role to grab the customers. That is Home Page and About Us Page. These may be the first pages on a website that a visitor would prefer to see. At a glance, your home page should identify your website’s main offer, as in “what you do,” “who you do it for” and “why you’re different.”
WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEANS?
With mobile-first indexing, there is only one index. The change to indexing does not generate a new mobile-first index, nor is it creating a separate “mobile index” with a “desktop index” remaining active. Instead, it simply changes how content is added to the existing index. If Google indexes the mobile version of your site, you’ll get a notice in your Google Search Console. This means that Google will determine by the content available on your mobile site how you will rank that is both on the desktop as well as on mobile. If you are not passing Google mobile test then your website can be negatively effected on search engines. If I talk about the mobile first indexing means that Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
Hence it is as simple as that because what you need to do is just to focus on a great content and a website that is responsive and fully functional on mobiles. Just focus on authentic and creative content and your website won’t come below in rankings.