Google is now in the process of rolling out what it’s calling the ‘mobile-first index’.
Any change Google makes generates a lot of chatter, one that they announce over a year in advance provides even more, and so it is with the mobile-first index.
In November 2016, using the Google Webmaster Central blog, Google made the following announcement; “algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site”
So, what does this mean and what (if anything) do you need to do to get ready?
First, why?
“Today, most people are searching on Google using a mobile device.” That’s the clear message coming from Google.
Until this update, Google has typically looked “at the desktop version of a page’s content to evaluate its relevance to the user”.
In English? This means that when Google wants to work out if your website is relevant, it reviews the desktop version of your site.
This presents a challenge, as Jennifer Slegg of The SEM Post highlights; “some websites serve different content to mobile users – usually a shortened or abbreviated version of the content.”
She continues, “since Google ranks based on the desktop site...users on mobile could choose a search result that appears to have what they are looking for, yet cant find it when they visit the page.”
This is a big problem. If the average mobile site is a low-fat version of a website, yet more and more people are searching on mobiles, Google needs to make sure it knows what the user will see on a mobile before sending them anywhere.
What is the mobile-first index?
In December 2017, Gary Illyes of Google explained, “mobile-first indexing means that we'll use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.”
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable continues, “Google will crawl and index the mobile version of your site as its primary source for content and ranking signals for your site.”
The index is where Google stores every piece of content (and website) it comes across. The index, at present, is primarily made up of desktop-friendly content.
When a user searches for something, Google goes to its index, finds the most suitable results, sorts them into a suitable order (ranking) and then shows the results page to the user.
This change is a move from desktop to mobile-first indexing. It means Google will find, review and store (index) the mobile version of any piece of content, as opposed to the desktop version.
It will then use the new mobile-first index to draw and rank its results.
In short: Google will be reviewing your site as it appears on a mobile from now on (or soon).
Why you should take note
This is a significant change. “If you have less content on your mobile version than on your desktop version - Google will probably see the less content mobile version,” explains Barry Schwartz.
That means that any content you have on your desktop site only is likely to be ignored by Google when it indexes and ranks your site.
In a tweet, Gary Illyes (of Google-fame, remember) hammered the points home: “because the mobile index will be the primary one so whatever you have in the desktop pages will not be as valuable.” (sic)
In short (again): the way your site looks, works, feels and communicates on a mobile is soon going to be more important than your desktop site when it comes to SEO.
When is the mobile-first index happening?
The announcement first happened in November 2016, and at that point Google stated that it had “begun experiments to make our index mobile-first.”
Since then, speaking at a conference in October 2017, Gary Illyes (Google-fame / horses mouth) confirmed that the mobile-first index had begun rolling out for “at least a few sites.”
Moving into 2018 we expect to see the rollout continue, albeit slowly. “Google is still testing it and will be rolling it out incredibly slowly” explains Barry Schwartz.
So when will it affect my site?
The short answer is, ‘who knows?’
The slightly-less-short-answer is that Google “will be evaluating sites independently on their readiness for mobile-first indexing...and transitioning them when ready.” That’s from Gary Illyes’s update in December.
Barry Schwartz was able to provide a little more context on his post, explaining that “Google has set up ‘classifiers’ to define how ready a site is for the mobile-first index.”
“Classifiers determine how equal or comparable the desktop site is to the mobile site when it comes to content, links, schema, multimedia, etc.”
Essentially, it sounds like Google is looking at sites (or most likely, huge batches of similar sites) on a case-by-case basis and deciding when they are ready.
The decision seems to be based on how closely the mobile and desktop version of each site matches each other, so as to minimise the impact of the change.
So will there be a separate index for mobile and desktop sites?
No.
Google’s index will “continue to be a single index of websites and apps.”
The new mobile-first index will replace the current (desktop-first, if you must) index.
Jennifer Slegg (SEM Post) highlights the implication of this; “...once Google changes over to the mobile-first index, you will only be able to rank for the content that appears on the mobile page.”
Mobile and desktop must work in harmony.
Preparing your website for the mobile-first index
Chances are, if you’ve been doing a good job with your website, you probably don’t need to do anything.
The main thing to consider is what type of website do you have?
1. I have a responsive website
“If you have a responsive site...where the primary content and markup is equivalent across mobile and desktop, you shouldn’t have to change anything,” says Google.
Essentially, if you have (and you really should have) a responsive site, then everything should be fine.
Google will be able to see all content and will therefore be able to index it and then consider it for ranking purposes.
That’s not to say there aren’t specific recommendations Google has made for your site, but we’ll cover that in a moment.
2. I have a separate mobile site
There’s going to be some work to do.
Ominously, Google says if you have a website “where the primary content...is different across mobile and desktop, you should consider making some changes.”
Jenny Halasz ramps up the fear, confirming that “the biggest issues come into play for separate mobile sites on different domains.”
If you’re mobile site is different to your desktop site, now is the time to review how it is setup, what content it displays and how to make sure it does what it should.
[insert witty call to action encouraging people to work with Indulge to fix their issues here]
3. I only have a desktop site
To be honest, you’re probably in better shape than option 2.
Google says, “if you only have a desktop site, we'll continue to index your desktop site just fine.”
“...a functional desktop-oriented site can be better than a broken or incomplete mobile version.”
There are two parts to this one. The first (and perhaps most important) is that if all you have available to users and Google is a desktop website then Google will be able to access, review, index and rank it.
The second and less thrilling part is that if your site doesn’t work well on a mobile, Google isn’t going to care much for it, assuming all of your competitors do have nice mobile-friendly sites.
But that’s nothing new, and doesn’t change with Google’s mobile-first index.
Short answer: think about optimising your site for mobile users, there’s more of them now and using a desktop site on a mobile is one of life’s most bitter of frustrations.
4. Special mention: I have a responsive site but have changed some content or code
Sometimes in order to optimise the experience (think speed) you might remove some code or content from the mobile render of your responsive site.
Jennifer Slegg picks out one example; “sites that have removed structured data markup from their mobile pages.”
Removing structured markup from your mobile (still responsive) templates can be a common approach to reducing page load speed, but now becomes a negative thing to do.
As with site owners who fall into category 2, it’s worth taking some time to review things now to make sure everything that needs to be seen is rendered in the mobile version of your site.
What you need to do to prepare for mobile-first indexing
Google says, “Make sure to serve structured markup for both the desktop and mobile.” They continue, advising you to “make sure the mobile version of the site also has the important, high-quality content.”
“Metadata should be present on both versions of the site...make sure that titles and meta descriptions are equivalent across both versions of all pages on the site.”
Jennifer Slegg recommends that “for desktop only sites, make sure that the actual content is fully accessible.”
She also highlights that “nothing is changing in regards to the mobile friendly ranking boost.” This means that Google has rewarded mobile-friendly sites with a ranking boost until now, and that won’t change moving forwards.
Barry Schwartz picks out the point that “Google will give full weight to content within tabs, accordions, drop downs and so on.”
This is contrary to previous advice that hiding content behind a dropdown would mean Google won’t necessarily review it. As it’s now a way of improving user experience on a mobile screen, Google won’t have the same issue with it.
Page speed remains as important as ever, Schwartz explains, “if you have a slow desktop page but your mobile page is super fast, Google will use the mobile version of your pagespeed.”
Conclusion
Over to Google’s, Gary Illyes for the final word; “we currently don't have a timeline for when it's going to be completed.”
Mobile-first indexing is coming. We don’t know when, but we know what Google is working towards.
There’s no need to panic, but there may be a need to act.
If in doubt, come and have a chat with us, we can sum up how things stack up and let you know if there’s anything you need to do.
