Mobile-First Indexing is Here. Is Your Site Ready?

Google started its journey of switching the priority of the way they index websites from desktop to mobile. If you already have a good responsive website or a good mobile version of your desktop website, then the migration should go relatively unnoticed.  If you don’t,  then it’s time to strategize. Before we go over the good, the bad and the ugly, let’s review what this means.

What is Mobile-First Indexing?

Historically Google crawled, indexed, and ranked websites off of the content found on desktop versions of sites. In March, they started crawling, indexing and ranking sites based off of the content found on mobile sites.  Now, this did not and will not happen all at once. Google began with a few selected best practices mobile sites, but eventually, all will be migrated to mobile-first indexing.  

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  

Following, you will find a few dos and don’ts that we’ve put together in order for you to prepare for mobile-first indexing.

1. Don’t Panic.  As we said earlier if you have a good mobile site or a good mobile version of your desktop site, this transition should be seamless.  Google provides you with a tool where you can check to see if your site is mobile friendly.  Keep in mind, that this is a very basic tool.  If you fail, your site has some serious issues and passing doesn’t necessarily mean you’re home free. 
2. Do Review Your UX/UI.Ideally, your mobile site should look different than your desktop site. Look at your menus and evaluate if they are easy to navigate.  Test to see if your buttons are the right size and easy to tap.  Make sure that your images are clearly visible. Check to see if your fonts are easily readable. 
3. Do Review Your Content.  Short sentence and paragraph work better on mobile. Create attention-getting headlines. Use bullet points whenever you can.  
4. Do Review Your Mobile Snippet. Evaluate how your customers find and access your website.  If the majority of the traffic comes from mobile, you’ll need to optimize your snippet accordingly. 

The Takeaway.  

Google clearly has made a choice and the choice is mobile.  As mobile devices continue to transform the way we conduct business, the success of your SEO efforts will depend on your ability to adapt to changes.  

If you have any questions or concerns about your website or mobile-indexing first, please reach out to us today.  We’d be happy to hear from you.