Fall is around the corner and 2021 is only three months away. So while sipping our pumpkin-spice lattes and dreaming of Jingle Bells may be the usual end of year vibe here are five things you can do to prepare for Google’s Mobile-First Indexing rollout.
What is mobile-first indexing?
Since most searching is done on mobile devices, Google is switching it’s default to mobile-friendly pages over desktop-based pages. In 2016, when mobile-first initially came out Google reported that more then 50% of global searches were completed on a mobile device. At the start of the year Google shared that mobile search is up to 63% – pre-COVID.
Visit this link here to check if your website is already mobile-first.
How to make your website mobile friendly:
1. Make sure Google can see what it needs to see. If a page on your desktop version has a robot.txt markup with noindex, make sure the same mobile page has it. Use this robot.txt checker to… check.
2. If you’ve only verified your desktop version in Google Search Console, add the mobile version.
3. Optimize your images and videos for mobile-first. Slow load times for pages are one of the main reasons people navigate away from sites. Here’s how to fix “lazy loading”.
4. Update the mobile version of your website so that it has the same level of important content as your desktop version – especially what you want to rank for. If your mobile version has less – you may see a dip in traffic.
5. Use the same clear and helpful on-page seo: header tags, meta descriptions, title tags, image alt attributes, structured data. (Or, test your structured data here.)
For a deep dive into mobile-first best practices, and a troubleshooting guide, visit: Mobile-First Indexing Best Practices.
If you’re still unsure about Google’s move to Mobile-First, or want a professional touch, Contact Us.
