12th March 2021 by 
Mobile-First Indexing is coming and might be here sooner than we think! We talked about this in a previous blog post nearly 12 months ago and there has been a lot of speculation about when changes might come into play. It’s very easy to get confused about what you actually need to know and how this is going to affect you as a website owner.
What is the Mobile-First indexing?
Mobile-first indexing is a change in the way Google is going to index content. Currently, Google looks at the desktop version of a site and then bases how it will rank the mobile site according to that information. Once the update rolls out, the opposite of that will happen. Google will be looking at your mobile site and from that, will rank the desktop site.
Why is this happening?
Nearly two years ago Google announced more searches occur on mobile than desktop. As mobile is now the predominant way for people to search on Google, it kind of makes sense for them to ensure the experience on this device is as good as it can be.
In lots of situations, sites provide a worse or stripped down user experience on the mobile device, that is not as good as the desktop site.
What do I do to prepare?
Well, first and foremost look at the mobile version of your site. Is the content from the desktop version visible and accessible. You should be providing a consistent experience for users regardless of the device they are using. You will also need to consider things such as site speed, page loading time, how structured your data is and how well your site links work along with how easy they are to navigate.
Why do I need to prepare?
- 9 out of 10 people say that they use multiple screens for such tasks as booking a flight online or managing their personal finances
- Nearly half of all website visitors will leave a mobile site if the pages don’t load within 3 seconds
- People are five times more likely to leave a mobile site that isn’t mobile-friendly
- Mobile and tablet internet usage exceeded desktop internet usage worldwide for the first time in October 2016
- With over 7 billion people on this planet today, the number of mobile phone users surpassed 5 billion in 2019
- Tablet devices account for the highest add-to-cart rates on e-commerce websites
- 88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours
- In 2018, 8 in 10 email users accessed their email accounts exclusively from their mobile devices
Google has some great tools for testing your website for mobile-friendliness that are completely free.
If you are in doubt about what to do, get in touch with us as we would love to help you. Our experienced web developers will be happy to discuss your website with you and help explain the ways in which you can future-proof your online presence.
*The information contained within this post was accurate at the time of writing.
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