Google’s mobile-first indexing is a fundamental shift in the way Google search works. Before mobile-first indexing, Google’s search indexing primarily used the desktop version of a webpage’s content for relevance, ranking signals, and serving results to users. However, with the prevalence of mobile internet usage surpassing desktop usage, Google implemented the ‘mobile-first’ indexing system. Now, Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
Google made this change because the users’ behaviors evolved. With smartphone penetration and mobile internet speed constantly on the rise, the majority of users are now accessing the internet on their mobile devices. In the United States, for instance, about 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device (CIODive, 2018).
Considering this trend, Google decided to prioritize mobile-friendly websites. In other words, the better mobile experience your website offers, the better it is likely to rank in Google. According to Google’s blog post from 2016, the move to mobile-first indexing was to ensure that “our baseline for testing and ranking is the mobile index.” Google maintains that it is trying to improve the consumer experience by ‘pushing’ site developers to concentrate more on mobile versions of their websites.
However, the transition to mobile-first indexing doesn’t mean “mobile-only.” There’s still a single index with both mobile and desktop versions. Suppose a site doesn’t have a mobile-friendly version. In that case, Google can still include that site in the index, but it won’t rank as well compared to mobile-friendly sites (Google Webmaster Central Blog, 2020).
For businesses, this change means that it’s crucial to have a mobile-friendly or responsive design website. Google recommends using a responsive layout for your site because it is more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content. Google also warns against using separate mobile and desktop sites, as the content might differ, leading to lower ranks on mobile-first indexing (Google Webmaster Central Blog, 2020).
The implications of Google’s mobile-first index are vast, and businesses need to adapt to stay competitive. This places a greater emphasis on developing high-quality, mobile-optimized websites for businesses hoping to maintain visibility in Google’s organic search results.
In summary, Google’s shift to mobile-first indexing is a response to changing user behaviours. With more and more people using mobile devices to access the internet, Google is placing more significance on the mobile version of websites.
Sources:
CIOdive. (2018, February 26). CIO Dive: Mobile Traffic.
Google Webmaster Central Blog. (2020, July 21). Preparing for Mobile-First Indexing.
How Google Search Works. (n.d.). Google Search Central.
