Mobile-First Indexing: What will it mean for SEO Professionals and businesses that sell online?

It’s been a busy year for the SEO industry as we enter the final quarter of the year 2018. There have been a few major as well as a myriad of smaller SEO optimization changes we’ve witnessed so far, however, nothing is more important than the move to mobile first indexing.

It’s true “evolve or degrade” accurately describes the rapid-evolving sector of SEO to optimize the industry. It’s a flexible and abrasive field, in which Google (as the most popular search engine) likes to keep online marketers on their own.

As stated in the previous paragraph there have been numerous smaller and larger modifications to Google algorithms this year. However in this blog, we will specifically look at the largest and most important update to date,

“Mobile-First Indexing”.

Google’s Mobile-first Indexing was announced in March of this year , and what confusion in the online business. It’s been nearly three months since the date of its release. Let’s take an in-depth review of what the new update is about and how it’s likely to affect websites.

Mobile-First Indexing The First Stand

Although we’re calling it the biggest change in SEO optimization , it wasn’t necessarily the most shocking one. SEO and digital marketing experts had been anticipating it for a while and the best marketers were prepared for it in advance.

When we take a look at the trends in search for Google and its search results, the statistics aren’t more clear regarding the coming update. The number of searches that are made on mobile devices has been outpacing desktop searches for several times, and it’s enough to convince marketers and online companies that it is important to maintain an active and dynamic presence on mobile search engines.

What’s the real story that lies behind the technicalities?

Google search listings work by bots that crawl the content of the website. In the past they were created to crawl through contents displayed on desktop sites. With an indexing that is mobile first, Google robots are crawling through the content of mobile-friendly versions too. In order to put it in the right context, websites who want to rank higher in mobile search results (which is more than half the search results) must be just equally cautious about mobile-friendly website’s content as they were in the case of desktop websites.

This is important because it was the norm for e-commerce companies to maintain a sharp focus on their desktop-based websites and mobile, while they are more likely to overlook keeping the mobile version up to date and current. The majority of mobile-friendly websites came with little functionality and hidden information from desktop versions. For example, if you were searching for “more SEO optimized services near me” prior to the advent of mobile-first indexing, the amount of websites available in response to your query was determined by the web pages’ desktop content.

But, things have changed in recent times and any query made on mobile devices will yield results based on the content of mobile devices. This means that businesses that have absence of mobile-friendly websites won’t show higher in mobile search results. This is significant, since it means that businesses with a poor mobile-friendly presence will be unable to attract over 50% of their traffic with no possibility of being displayed.

It is therefore the right time for businesses to start considering mobile-friendly versions of websites seriously and ensure the highest quality and dynamic website for mobile-friendly searches.

Author Bio:

Folio3 is a leading provider of best Shopify migration services in the United States. We have helped hundreds of clients to migrate their stores from one platform to another.