What is the Mobile First Index?
Google started an initiative some time ago: the Mobile-First Index. Their goal is to highlight the mobile version of a website as the most important. In contrast, Google used to use the desktop-first indexing approach. This means that crawlers determined rankings based on information from the desktop version of a website.
According to Google, all rankings, both mobile and desktop, are now based on the mobile crawl. The only exception is if a page is a desktop-only site, which is strongly discouraged in this day and age!
What you need to know about the Mobile-First Index
Google has found that adults spend an average of 2-3 hours a day on their cell phones to browse the Internet on the go. This means that mobile users already make up the majority of online users. To better serve these users, it is not at all surprising that Google is taking more initiative in this area.
Google's goal was to have only one Index and not to have both a desktopIndex as well as a mobile Index. However, if you now Content that is on your desktop site, but NOT on your mobile site, you will not be able to access this Content do not rank!
MFI Tips and Facts
- If there is a difference between your desktop and mobile version, Google will only index what is on your mobile version. Make sure your most important content is on your mobile version!
- The level of your mobile traffic has nothing to do with when and if your sites are on the mobile first Index be converted.
- If your website is mobile responsive, all is (probably) well.
- Page speed on mobile becomes incredibly important! If a website is really slow, it could lead to a demotion in the Ranking lead.
- If your website is not rendered properly, it may be lost from the Index from Google fall out.
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