What is mobile-first indexing?
According to the Google Webmaster Central Blog, mobile-first indexing means Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page’s content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user’s query. Since the majority of users now access Google via a mobile device, the index will primarily use the mobile version of a page’s content from now onwards.
Google has stated that it is not going to create a separate mobile-first index, but will continue to use only one index.
With mobile-first indexing, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent. Do keep in mind that Google will continue to show the URL that is the most appropriate to users (whether it’s a desktop or mobile URL) in its search results.
How do I check this update?
Currently, Google will notify websites that are migrating to mobile-first indexing via Google Search Console.
Couldn’t find that update from the notification? Don’t worry, because your website will still be indexed by Google.
Best practices for mobile-first indexing
| If you have this style of site | ||
| Type of website structure | Changing | Version for indexing |
| Desktop only Your site is only desktop-compatible and doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version. |
No | The mobile version is the same as the desktop version. |
| Responsive web design
Your site adjusts for screen size. |
No | The mobile version is the same as the desktop version. |
| Canonical AMP
All your web pages are created in AMP HTML. |
No | The mobile version is the same as the desktop version. |
| Separate URLs
Each desktop URL has an equivalent different URL that serves mobile-optimized content. This site type is also known as an m-dot site. |
Yes | Google prefers the mobile URL for indexing. |
| Dynamic serving
Your site serves different content based on the user’s device. Users only see one URL. |
Yes | Google prefers the mobile-optimized content for indexing. |
| AMP and non-AMP
Your site has both AMP and non-AMP versions of a page. Users see two different URLs. |
Yes | Google prefers the mobile version of the non-AMP URL for indexing. |
| Best practices for dynamic serving and separate URLs | ||
| Your mobile site should contain the same content as your desktop site | Structured data should be present on both versions of your site. | Metadata should be present on both versions of the site. |
| Additional best practices of separate URLs | ||
| Verify both versions of your site in the Search Console | Check hreflang links on separate URLs. | Ensure that your servers have sufficient capacity |
| Verify your robots.txt directives | Make sure you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=alternate link elements | |
*We highly recommend you to check out the full guide here: https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing
Still using a non-mobile-friendly website?
It’s time to upgrade your website! A website that is mobile-friendly gets a boost in its indexing and ranking. This will also provide a better user experience to mobile users.
While using mobile-first indexing has no ranking advantage, Google does evaluate all content in its index, whether it is desktop or mobile version, before determining your overall search engine ranking.
Feel free to check if your website is mobile-friendly or not here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Quick tips: Looking for other free Google Tool for a website, you should check this post.
Summary
The traffic from smartphone devices is increasing every day. Designing your website to be mobile-friendly not only ensures that your content stays consistent throughout all devices, but also gets Google to ‘love’ your website more.
