Don’t want to lose your rank in Google? Find out what Mobile First Index is and how to prepare your website to new search engine algorithms.
A claim that mobile devices are the future of the internet is no longer valid. Currently this is not the forecast, but the present. Mobile devices play an extremely important role in searching information online. This is why Google has developed the Mobile First Index favouring websites adjusted for mobile view.
What is Mobile First Index?
Google’s indexing robots keep on analysing websites assigning them given values and a rank in the search engine. The evaluation can cover such issues as link structures, text available on the web page, loading speed or type of materials published. Not so long ago, a greater value was attributed to websites adjusted to personal computers (Desktop First Index). When entering the mobile age, Google invented a way to have websites adjusted for mobile view display first. This new indexing model, Mobile First Index, is all about placing websites unadjusted to mobile devices lower in the search engine ranking.
SEO vs Mobile First Index
The introduced changes have a considerable impact on fluctuations in the Google search results, which may translate into more difficult positioning of websites that do not have a smartphone or tablet version available. What to take into account when optimising the page? Primarily, structural data and metadata (title and description) should be present in both website versions. They must be identical on the desktop or mobile site. The same is true for content meaning not only texts, but also films and images, including their alt attributes. It would be good if a mobile website contained the same amount of text as the desktop one.
One should not forget that the content browsed on a smartphone or tablet must be very legible. There is no room for pop-ups with almost invisible “x” to close the window. In this case a much better solution would be push advertising, namely a window containing a short call-to-action message. Currently, push advertising, as a modern form of communication with potential customers, is fully adjusted to mobile and responsive websites. When preparing a campaign, we have an opportunity to see what the push advertising will look like on various devices.
A responsive or mobile website?
Nowadays a mobile website version is a huge advantage. However, is having only a responsive page a reason to worry about? Apparently, it’s not. In this case Google will index a desktop version, considering its display on mobile devices. If we have provided for RWD or a dynamic content website, we can recognise it as ready for facing Mobile First Indexing.
An important role in the process is also played by AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages), i.e. a way to create website with a view to accelerating their loading thanks to the use of cloud infrastructure or caching services. AMP directly affects SEO, reducing a bounce rate. This is true not only for mobile websites, but also desktop ones.
