Google has begun to phase in a significant change recently that is set to change the face of Google search results.
In recent weeks Google has communicated with a number of companies and webmasters to notify them that their websites have been migrated to mobile-first indexing. For businesses whose websites aren’t mobile friendly, this could be a worrying development.
Mobile-first indexing is an algorithm update that will give priority to websites that have a mobile version. The good news is that if your website is purely desktop it will still be crawled however the not so good news is that it may affect it’s ranking in the Google search engine negatively. It’s important to note that if responsive design has been used on your website, the update shouldn’t affect search rankings.
This may seem unnecessarily unfair to business owners but in a fast paced technological world where mobile devices are the preference of the general public it is perfectly necessary as it will give website visitors the best experience possible.
As we’ve already mentioned if your website isn’t mobile-friendly and purely desktop you won’t disappear from the Google search results but you may notice your website dropping down the results if you’re relying on ranking organically. There’s no need for panic just yet though as Google is only just beginning to roll this out to websites it feels are prepared. The process is estimated to take a year or so before it becomes a necessity to all websites. It is however a great time to really consider your website strategy and get ahead of the curve before it does become an issue.
To utilise mobile-first indexing and give your website the best chance of ranking in the search engine you should:
Ensure that your website is either built responsively or has a completely separate mobile version. The advisable route being the responsive option.
High quality content is still key on your mobile version
Structured data is consistent across your mobile and desktop sites
Navigation – it’s critical that your internal links all work across your mobile version
Your page speed is also a major factor that can have a negative impact on your rankings if it is too slow
Here at Delite we understand the importance a change like this can have on your website. That is why Delite websites are built responsively and with such an update in mind. You can be confident that if you have one of our Deliteful websites mobile-first indexing isn’t something you’ll need to worry about.
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