Mobile-first indexing is big news. Huge, in fact. By March 2021, Google will have switched all websites from desktop-first to mobile-first in a radical Google indexing shakeup. This follows the widespread adoption of mobile devices which, in turn, has radically shifted the way we search and browse the web. Let’s check out some mobile usage stats and delve deeper into what you need to know about mobile-first indexing for 2021.
Mobile Usage – the Stats You Need to Know
In order to understand the mobile-first mindset of the Google experts, it’s important to know how mobile is shaping our lives. So here are some useful stats.
- Smartphone users are set to reach 3.8 billion in 2021.
- In the US, 63% of Google visits are from mobile devices.
- The UK has the highest number for smartphone penetration at 82.2%
- In the third quarter of 2020, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 50.81 percent of global website traffic, consistently hovering around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017.
- Global mobile traffic accounts for 30 exabytes per month.
What exactly is Mobile-First Indexing?
It’s clear that mobile search isn’t going anywhere. So, what exactly is mobile indexing? It might sound complicated but it’s actually simple to understand. Google themselves refer to it by saying: “Mobile-first indexing means Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.” In the past, Googlebot primarily used a website’s desktop version to determine a page’s relevance to a search query, but this has since shifted to mobile variants meaning your mobile content needs to be on-point.
What Does This Mean For Me?
The majority of sites have already been switched to mobile-first indexing in light of the March 2021 deadline. To find out if you’ve already been switched, go to Google Console/Settings/About and check out the ‘indexing crawler’ section. This will tell you if your site has been crawled by a smartphone Googlebot and from when.
If your site is now mobile-first indexed, there’s no need to panic. There will be very little change for most businesses, especially if you’ve a responsive desktop site as the content served to mobile customers will be the same.
If a website isn’t responsive and serves different desktop and mobile versions, however, there are things that need to be considered. You’ll want to complete a technical site audit, for example, to ensure there are no bugs or issues. There are specific bugs related to m.dot sites and a more responsive approach may be needed.
How Can I Optimise my Site for Mobile-First Indexing?
Mobile-first indexing guidelines from Google state that: “If your mobile site has less content than your desktop site, consider updating your mobile site so that its primary content is equivalent to your desktop site. Almost all indexing on your site comes from your mobile site.” This is a very obvious and clear warning from Google that mobile sites need to be packed with awesome content. So be sure to:
- Analyse the structure of your mobile site and ensure it’s as complete as the desktop version. Make sure you’ve all the relevant internal links as this will create a natural site structure for Google and help you to give a hierarchy to important pages.
- Optimise your content with all the relevant keywords, being sure to include keywords in URLs, titles, sub-headers, and throughout the body content. But remember not to keyword cram as the content should read naturally.
- Keep images, videos, ad placements, metadata and any structured data the same between desktop and mobile sites to avoid any problems with mobile-first indexing.
Contact Whitefish Marketing today for mobile-first content optimisation and more. As SEO experts, we’ll ensure you’re on the right track and help maximise traffic.
