iOS devices, smartphones, and tablet computers fundamentally changed the way people search for information on the web. While these convenient, state-of-the-art pieces of technology have been on the market for many years, only recently have the number of search queries taking place on them reached the tipping point.
In response, Google has decided to change the way it ranks and indexes websites. It would be best to consult with a reliable Dallas SEO company to understand Google’s new indexing system.
Google’s old way of ranking websites happened through a desktop-friendly lens. Since mobile device searches are a relatively new phenomenon, websites were only optimized for desktop. Google’s spiders or website crawlers would index desktop sites and rank them accordingly. Soon enough, web developers started crafting mobile-friendly versions of websites, but these sites were not given premium ranking.
This has changed with mobile-first indexing.
If there are two versions of the same site - mobile and desktop friendly - Google will crawl the mobile version and rank it. This is what Google means by ‘mobile-first’ indexing; the mobile version of the site gets primary indexing.
Don’t worry if you only have a desktop-friendly site. Google will still rank it. It hasn’t disappeared from Google’s radar.
But mobile-friendly sites are a more valuable currency in today’s SEO market. Google cares about the user experience, and more users than ever before are viewing content on mobile devices.
Hence, online business owners need to be wary when competitor sites offer viewers similar content to theirs, but their site is mobile-friendly and theirs isn’t.
Yes, the competitors’ site can outrank yours based on mobile-friendliness alone.
There are several things you can do to get your site to continue ranking favorably. Implementing a responsive design, and making images, fonts, and button sizes mobile-friendly will help maintain your SEO rank. If you have two versions of the same site that are essentially the same, you probably won’t need to change anything.
However, if you only have a desktop-friendly version of your site, it will greatly affect your ranking. A professional website developer can help get your site ready for Google’s new mobile-first indexing system before the competition starts to outrank you.
The professional SEO experts at D6 Interactive - a Dallas SEO company, know all about Google’s new indexing system and how to get your site ready for it. Get in touch with us.
Sources:
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html
https://moz.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo
