How to Prepare Your Website for Google Mobile-First Indexing

Over time, the number of Internet users on mobile phones has increased, and today it has surpassed the number of users accessing the Internet through desktops. As mobile Internet users are expected to increase further, Google has announced significant changes to its mobile-first indexing algorithm.

What is a mobile priority index?

So far, Google used to crawl your site and index it based on its desktop version. But now, it will index your site and rank is based on the content of your mobile site. This change in prioritizing mobile sites in the Google algorithm is called a mobile-first index.

All websites basically need to comply with the specifications of this new algorithm if they want to keep their Google search engine rankings and get organic traffic through their website to Google. However, if your site is not optimized for this new algorithm, you will definitely get less traffic.

Therefore, to ensure that your site is ready for mobile-first indexing, you should follow these tips:

Tip 1: Use responsive design

Using responsive website design is very important to maintain website rankings. Responsive design means your website should fit all types of screen sizes, such as desktops, tablets or mobile devices. Responsively designed websites are not only suitable for any screen size, but also highly accessible and fluent across all device types, thus helping to retain the target audience.

Tip 2: Make sure your site loads faster

There is no doubt that the design of your website is very important, but in addition, the speed at which your website loads on different devices is critical to the success of any website. Therefore, you need to ensure that your site loads quickly, not just on your desktop or even on your mobile device. Now, users expect pixel-perfect images and instant rendering times for most websites. Only when your site is fast, will it have a lower bounce rate and invite longer participation times, which is critical for its high ranking on search engines.

Tip 3: Display the same content

Although Google has not yet clarified its new algorithm, it has repeatedly said: "Make sure you provide the same content on mobile and desktop sites. This means articles, same links, and the same features." Therefore, it is only in your best interest. And in line with Google's algorithms to provide the same type of content for your site, just like all the different types of gadgets.

We recommend following these tips to make sure your site is ready for Google Mobile Priority Indexing before Google implements the new algorithm.