In Google SEO news, the search engine giant has announced it’s ready to roll out mobile-first indexing to the whole web as of March 2021 – a date pushed back from September 2020. While the change has been circulating SEO news since 2018, a new deadline for the switch has been set and is unlikely to move according to Google’s John Mueller.
Increase in searches from mobile devices
The move to mobile-first indexing follows a significant increase in searches from mobile devices and is aimed to give mobile users a better experience. By prioritising mobile results, desktop only sites will completely drop out of Google’s index. This means that everything offered on a desktop site should be offered via a mobile site including structured data and any meta data such as titles, descriptions and robot meta tags.
Mueller said: “We’re now almost completely indexing the web using a smartphone Googlebot, which matches a lot more what users would actually see when they search. And one of the things that we noticed that people are still often confused about is with regards to, like if I only have something on desktop, surely Google will still see that and it will also take into account the mobile content.
“But actually, it is the case that we will only index the mobile content in the future. So when a site is shifted over to mobile first indexing, we will drop everything that’s only on the desktop site. We will essentially ignore that… anything that you want to have indexed, it needs to be on the mobile site. And the final deadline we’ve come up with is March 2021.”
Problems with M-dot sites and separate mobile sites
It’s also worth noting that Google might have a difficult time with redirecting desktop users to the desktop versions of m-dot sites. M-dot sites might experience having desktop browser users sent to the mobile version of the site from Google’s SERPs. If this is you, it’s recommended to detect desktop browsers and redirect them to the correct desktop version. This bug doesn’t look set to be fixed anytime soon.
Websites that’ll be most affected by mobile-first indexing are those that provide separate mobile and desktop pages for users, depending on which device they’re using. In this scenario, the mobile version will always be crawled first. This could impact your overall ranking if the content on this site has not been optimised correctly or is not up to scratch. Responsive websites that adapt to accommodate various screen sizes should not be greatly affected by mobile-first indexing. This is the design approach Google recommends for mobile optimisation and one that’ll seamlessly slip into the new indexing format.
Top mobile optimisation tips
Top mobile optimisation tips include writing mobile-friendly content. Keep sentences and paragraphs short and use plenty of eye-catching headers and sub-headers. Use a clear font and include plenty of white spaces to make scrolling on-the-go easy. Ensure buttons are large enough to tap on screen. All content should be SEO optimised according to your relevant keyword set.
Contact Whitefish Marketing today, a Kent SEO agency, for the latest mobile-first SEO optimisation strategies.
