Google Mobile Indexing Not Completed
Lately, we have been hearing of a new development called mobile-first indexing. In an ever-continuing effort to make website browsing reflect behavior trends of a user and make it more mobile-friendly, Google is promising us something that will definitely redefine content indexing. However, there is a lot of confusion about what this means to an average site owner. What does it mean for your ranking? Should you do anything about it? Should you be worried? If your website is mobile-friendly, will the new developments be good enough? Well, this article unveils in all you need to know about Google’s mobile-first indexing!
What does mobile first indexing mean?
Google mobile first indexing is just what it sounds like! It means that the mobile version of your site takes priority for what Google includes in their content indexing. It also forms the bottom line for how it determines site’s rankings. Ordinarily, Google used to index websites based on the desktop experience as well as the content on the site. The switch-to-be is based on the premise that more and more searches originate from mobile devices and it is expected that the launch will give users a better experience. It is essential to note that the Google mobile first indexing is not a separate index as Google has a single index from which it delivers the results.
It is referred to as “mobile-first” simply because it is not a mobile-only index. In other words, if a website does not have a mobile version, the desktop site will still be included in the index. However, the absence of mobile-friendly experience may negatively affect a site’s rankings and vice versa.
The last interpretation of mobile-first index is that the mobile version of a website will be considered as the primary version. So if your desktop and mobile versions are equivalent, in theory, the site will be optimized based on the mobile version.
When will Google Mobile First Indexing take effect?
The above is a loaded question, and there is a response from Google themselves, but you may not like it! For the past few months, tons of webmasters have been receiving notifications that their websites migrated to the new indexing system. However, that is far away from the truth! Google mobile first indexing will take years to be go into effect as it is far from done. At one of the conferences attended by Google’s Illyes Gary, he said that they would only launch it when results are “quality neutral”.
Reading between the lines of his words means that mobile first indexing will take years before we see the benefits because getting to “quality neutral” is not only difficult but quite tricky. However, at a later interview, Gary reiterated that launching it early next year is somewhat a more realistic timeline. Experts in SEO predict that Google may roll out the new product anytime but in batches. Ours is just the “wait and see” scenario!
Are you ready for the change?
Anyone reading this article may think that Google is delaying the launch with the intent of making your site’s experience more difficult. However, there is nothing to worry about, as the product will seamlessly make browsing experiences and rankings even better. All you need to do is to prepare for the take-off by implementing a couple of things. First, ensure you catch up with all the latest news by reading the webmaster blog post for Google. Second, ensure your site has a responsive design, and if not, all primary content should be on your mobile site. Last, but not least, think about UX on mobile and carry out a mobile-friendliness test. If you are done with all these practices, sit back, relax, and wait for the roll out of Google Mobile-first indexing!
