Google's mobile-first indexing initiative that started just about seven years ago is now complete, according to Google.
“It's been a long road, getting from there to here. We're delighted to announce that the trek to Mobile-First Indexing is now complete,”
John Mueller, Google
With the switch complete, Google will reduce desktop crawling to conserve resources, so if your website doesn’t have an up-to-date responsive mobile design, you could see your rankings drop significantly over the coming months.
Google’s Mobile-First Indexing policy prioritises the mobile version of a website’s content for indexing and ranking in Google’s search results. This means that Google primarily uses the mobile version of a site to determine its relevance and position in search rankings, regardless of whether the user is searching from a mobile device or desktop computer.
Google celebrates this milestone in an announcement
“Over the years, mobile web traffic has continued to grow; in some regions, people almost exclusively use their phone to access the internet. Thank you – site owners, SEOs, web developers, designers, and everyone who works on websites – for helping to make the mobile web a success.”
With the rollout finished, Google has fully embraced mobile as the primary way users access the web.
It may surprise you to learn that as much as 80% of your traffic is viewed on a mobile device, in some markets and territories, it could be almost 100%. So, your website must have a great user interface, design and high readability for all mobile screen sizes.
A brief history…
Google announced its intention to move towards Mobile-First Indexing in a blog post on 4 November 2016. The announcement highlighted the increasing trend of users accessing the internet via mobile devices and the need for search results to align more with this user behaviour.
Google started experimenting with Mobile-First Indexing by testing and indexing some sites using their mobile versions first. Throughout 2017 and 2018, Google gradually rolled out Mobile-First Indexing to more websites, signalling a shift in its indexing approach.
On 26 March 2018, Google officially announced it had started the process of migrating websites to Mobile-First Indexing. Google prioritised websites it deemed ready and responsive for mobile users in this migration.
Mobile-First Indexing by default
Starting 1 July 2019, Google used Mobile-First Indexing by default to index all new websites. It meant Google predominantly used the mobile version of a website for indexing, even if the user was searching from a desktop device.
Key aspects of Google’s Mobile-First Indexing policy include:
- Content prioritisation: Google’s algorithms give preference to the content and structure of the mobile version of a website when indexing and ranking pages.
- Responsive design: Websites with responsive designs that adapt to various screen sizes and resolutions are favoured. Responsive design ensures a consistent user experience across different devices.
- Mobile-friendly pages: Mobile-friendly pages, with properly formatted and easily readable content on smaller screens, are more likely to rank higher in mobile search results.
- Structured data: Websites should use structured data that is equivalent across both desktop and mobile versions to ensure accurate indexing and display of ‘rich snippets’ in search results.
- Page speed: Mobile page speed is a critical factor. Google considers mobile page loading speed an essential criterion for ranking.
QBD has had a mobile-first policy for website design ever since Google made its first announcement back in 2016, but we are amazed so many websites still aren’t optimised for mobile devices.
Some web developers still focus primarily on the desktop version and then make a few changes to look OK and fit on a mobile, often with reduced content too. We don’t. Mobile responsiveness is built into every web project we work on.
How can you be sure your website is being indexed correctly?
Google Search Console (GSC) is a great place to start. It will inform you which pages are indexed and those that have problems or are being ignored for some reason. However, fixing the problems it identifies can be challenging and often misleading too, so we would recommend you work with a credible web developer with experience in mobile-first design and build to evaluate and fix any issues.
For example, it can be tricky meeting the criteria of fitting into a small screen device, not having content too close to the edge and still being readable. Not to mention image size and load times, structured data, metadata… the list goes on.
We’re here for you if you need any help with this.
QBD can help with Mobile-First Indexing
If you’re unsure about your website and how mobile-friendly it is, give QBD a call or complete this form and we’ll carry out a FREE review for you and let you know how things are looking and what you might need to do to ensure you are indexing correctly.
You’ve got nothing to lose, and you just might find a quick and easy fix to start climbing those rankings.
Why not do it now, before you forget? Your customers will thank you.
Paul Dyer
Managing Director and SEO Guru at QBD
About the author
Paul has more than 25 years of experience with search engines, he was around when Google launched and has tracked them ever since. His expertise in digital marketing has enabled him to grow several businesses in the UK to multi-million-pound turnover, with full trade exits. He now spends his time helping other companies navigate the digital landscape and implement effective growth strategies.