According to a new study by Stone Temple Consulting, 63% of all website traffic in the U.S. now comes from mobile devices. So it makes sense that Google has responded by rolling out mobile-first indexing. But what exactly does that mean and what should you do about it?
What does mobile-first indexing mean?
Historically, Google’s crawler, known as the Googlebot, would search the desktop version of your website content in order to index your site and determine your search engine rankings. Now, with mobile-first indexing, Google will use the mobile version of your site first. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly version, the desktop version will still be included in the index. But, not having one could negatively impact how your site ranks. Mobile-First means that the mobile version will be considered the primary version of your website.
What impact will it have on me?
If your website is already mobile responsive, and your mobile content has already been optimized, then you will probably not experience any significant impact to your search engine results. But if it hasn’t, for example, if the mobile version of your site does not include the full content of your desktop site, you may find that your site is not as visible in search engines as it once was.
What do I need to do?
If your website is already mobile responsive and the desktop and mobile versions of your site are identical, you may not need to do anything differently. Of course, even with a fully responsive site, you should check to make sure that your page load speed is prioritized and that all images have been optimized correctly. But, if your mobile site is separate from your desktop version, you will want to make sure that your mobile version contains all the same valuable content that appears on the desktop version, including text, videos and images. You should also ensure that your metadata (titles and descriptions) are equivalent on both versions.
It’s always a good idea to have a website professional take a look at your site to ensure that it is performing in the best way possible and that it will continue to do so. If you’re unsure how mobile-first indexing might affect your website rankings, give us a call. Infinite Web Designs has over 17 years of experience creating and optimizing web designs. 203-307-5107.
