Mobile First Index
This is a technique used by Google which will consider mobile site (m.site.com) as primary for page ranking. Traditionally, Desktop Sites were used to determine ranking but mobile first index will change this priority to mobile site(m.site.com).
According to Google – Mobile First Indexing, Google will first consider the mobile version of your website to determine the rank for a search query. If there is no mobile version of the website available then it will consider desktop version of website.
Mobile First Indexing is being a necessity because of some reasons, they are:
- Mobile versions of some desktop sites eliminates whole section of some pages like side bar due to lack of screen spaces. Now Mobile First Index technique will display desktop site as it is.
- Increasing number of mobile user over desktop user.
Mobile Search Index Has Overtaken Desktop Search Index:
These days mobile are a common electronic gadget to search on web. Most of the people use Smartphone for web browsing, as it is more handy and portable rather than Pc or laptop. Increasing number of mobile users on internet over desktop user needs some changes in web searching index. Actually it will create some issues if mobile sites have less content than desktop site. This is the reason why Google wants to create a mobile searche based web searching index.
These results in beginning of experiments to make index mobile first. Aim of this experiment is to create a search index which treats mobile searches as primary contents for ranking. This experiment is based on the fact that search index will be single index of website but ranking will be based on searches of mobile version of a website. Of course, it will affect both mobile users and desktop users as well.
Make Your Websites According to Mobile First Indexing
Google has developed Mobile-First Index technique to make use of web browsing compatible to mobile, Basically it helps you to increase traffic on your website. You just have to follow some instructions prescribed by Google with respect to mobile indexing. Some changes need to be implemented on your website based on whether it is responsive site or dynamic serving site. Responsive sites are designed in such a way that server will send same HTML code to all devices and CSS will handle rendering of pages. In case of dynamic sites, different HTML code depending on URL is used to send to different users.
What Changes Should Be Done According To Mobile-First Index:
Mobile users are main subject for developing this technique but it doesn’t mean that desktop users are not in their list. So mobile first index techniques were developed in such a way that your websites are compatible to both mobile and desktop as well.
- In case of Responsive sites and Dynamic serving sites, if Primary content and markup data are same for mobile and desktop. Then there is no need to make changes in Website.
- If mobile and desktop sites have different content and markup data then you should make some changes in your Websites.
- Use structured markup data for both mobile and desktop website.
- You can verify equivalency of structured markup data for mobile and desktop site using a tool name: Structure Data Testing Tool.
- Try to avoid addition of large amount of markup data to a mobile site.
- Make sure that your mobile version sites are accessible to Googlebot. You can check this feature using txt testing tool.
- Make sure that canonical Links remain same throughout which will be used by Google to guide for an appropriate result.
You Must Be Aware with These Fact Too:
- Verify both sites whether it is desktop site or mobile site on search Console.
- If there is no mobile version of your site then you don’t have to worry, Google will index your desktop site as it is.
- If you are going to launch a mobile site then remember not to launch an incomplete or broken site.
- Update your old wordpress website to mobile responsive wordpress theme.
- No need to design website accoding to Mobie fisrt indexing, you just have to create mobile version of your website same as desktop version.
- Google will not consider AMP pages. In case there are no mobile sites available then, Google will choose desktop site for Mobile first index instead of Amp Pages.
Effect Of Mobile First Index On Mobile User:
Earlier Google displayed less contents of a page of desktop site version on mobile. For example, it did not display side bar contents. This led to availability of less and improper contents of site. Mobile First Indexing technique will display a site as mobile user instead of desktop user.
If you make the mobile version of your site much lighter than desktop version, then you can loose user traffic on your website bacause of lack of keywords and hence low search ranking.
Impact Of Mobile First Index On Search Result:
As per Mobile First Indexing technique Google will create search list according to mobile version contents. It means mobile version of web will be treated as primary search engine index. It clearly reflects that if your website is not mobile friendly then it directly affects your rank on search engine.
Impact Of Mobile First Index On SEO:
Mobile First Indexing makes mobile as an important part of SEO. Now Google will use data, link, and contents of mobile version of a site instead of desktop version to determine the page ranking.
Conclusion:
Mobile First Index is a nice approach towards web browsing. It will increase mobile user traffic on your website whether it is a mobile site or desktop site.
In this article I try to put a summary on Mobile First Index technology and try to share answers for some obvious questions also. I hope this information will be helpful to you.