Recently, Google has posted details about changing their search algorithm to a mobile-first indexing. This change is going to rank pages based on their mobile version, instead of showing results specifically for people on mobile and another set of results for people on desktop. Google plans to make this ranking the one for all devices, desktop and mobile.
Why?
It’s not a surprise that more and more people are searching the internet with their phones, instead of their desktop computers. In October, according to StatCounter, over 51% of web traffic came from a mobile or tablet device. Keeping that in mind, Google strives to provide useful information and a positive experience for all users on desktop and mobile devices.
What Do I Need to Do?
- Responsive Website: If you have a responsive website, which is a website that changes based on the width of the device or browser window, you don’t have to do anything.
- Mobile Version: • : If you have a separate version of your website for mobile and you want to prepare yourself for this change, you can do the following:
- Check to make sure that the structure of the pages for all versions of your website is the same.
- Check to be sure that there are not excessive amounts of unnecessary content on your pages.
- Check your website with Google’s testing tool o to see if the mobile version of your website can be accessed.
- o Use Google’s Search Console to verify the mobile version of your website.
- None of the options above: If you don’t have a responsive website or mobile version of your website, you can leave it “as is” and Google will use your desktop version for indexing, but you won’t get the mobile-friendly boost.
Still need some help? We have a proven track record of providing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that is customized for each of our clients, so they achieve the best results. Call us at 763-350-8762 for a free, no obligation review of your website. We’d be happy to let you know if you will be hit by this Google update, and what you need to do.
