What is Mobile First Indexing

1. WhatisMobileFirstIndexing? Howdoesitimpactyourwebsite? Creating a website won’t make much of a difference for your online visibility unless it is indexed. So, what is indexing? It is how the web information is organized through crawling (search engine crawlers discover new pages and content online) that enables the search engines like Google, Bing, Microsoft Edge, and likewise to recognize the web pages. While web indexing is a conventional process of online marketing, owing to the 2019 Google update significant focus has shifted to mobile-first indexing. What is Mobile First Indexing Mobile-first indexing can be defined as the practice undertaken by Google where it primarily uses and acknowledges mobile versions of the online content for ranking and indexing. Before this update, indexing involved the use of the desktop version of the website content during an assessment of the page’s relevance to the user's inquiry. Things started to change, and so did Google’s approach after the advent of smartphones. In recent times most internet traffic has been generated via mobile phones, and the number keeps accelerating. According to the latest data, more than 55% of internet users globally use mobile phones to access websites. With the majority of the users using mobile devices to search on Google, the Googlebot indexes the mobile version of the pages first. Owing to this landmark change

2. in indexing policy, online marketers are revisiting and redesigning their strategies with mobile-first indexing in mind. Best Practices of Mobile First Indexing To yield favorable results from mobile-first indexing, you need to incorporate the following practices. Access to Googlebot The Googlebot should be able to access all your web pages and render the contents. For that to happen:  Enable the visibility of lazy-loaded content, as Google does not acknowledge the ones that require user interactions.  Enable Google to crawl all resource URLs.  The Meta robot tags used on the desktop and mobile site should be the same to prevent crawl/index failure. Similar Content on Desktop and Mobile Your desktop and the mobile site should not have a content ratio imbalance. The primary content should be the same on both versions, or else the Googlebot might get confused while indexing, impacting the SERPs and rankings. The headers and banners on both versions should be the same. Structured Data The structured data should be the same on both desktop and mobile versions, not to mention, the URLs of structured data on the mobile version should be updated as per the desktop. Similar Meta-Data on Desktop and Mobile Every website has Meta tags like Meta titles and Meta Descriptions. It should be the same for mobile as well as desktop websites. Well-placed Ads The placement of the ads on mobile websites should be done judiciously, so it does not take up too much space on the linear version, thus disrupting the user experience. It can seriously damage the page ranking. Emphasis on Visual Content Visual content generates significant traffic and Google loves pictures and videos. To ensure that it favors your mobile-first indexing strategies, you must use high-quality images with a supported format or tag. The URLs should not change for image resources, and the alt text for both versions should remain the same. Lastly, the captions, descriptions, texts, filenames, etc., should be similar.

3. Concluding Thoughts On an ending note, the proper incorporation of strategies like mobile-first indexing and likewise demands the knowledge and expertise of seasoned online marketing professionals. Based in Dubai, SEO Out of the Box has just what your website needs to stay ahead of the competition. With a thriving local and global presence, the company helps businesses with inclusive online marketing packages and consultation. From web design and development to SEO strategizing and mobile-first indexing, their team can ensure that your website gets maximum coverage and visibility online for increased business.