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Mobile First Indexing
What do you mean by Mobile first indexing?
Google recently changed its search algorithms to give priority to mobile version of the site. Google will give priority to mobile versions of the content while indexing and crawling. Google is not creating separate index rather it will continue to use single index. This move of Google is an alert for many webmasters, ecommerce sites, etraders, big giant and small business owners for migration and improve mobile version of the site to rank better in mobile search engine results pages.
What are the main reasons for giving priority to mobile versions of the site?
The main reason behind this move of Google is that the number of mobile and smart phones users is rising at very rapid rate across the world especially in developing nations and desktop version may vary from mobile version hence can cause issues for mobile searchers. Although those sites having only desktop version will continued to be indexed and used for mobile searches but if there is mobile version then it will be given priority over desktop version. To remain search engine leader Google want to give better user experience to mobile and smart phone searchers.
Why Mobile first indexing is important for big and small businesses from SEO point of view?
If we look at device data usages, according to Statista in 2019 only the mobile phone users are likely to reach 4.68 billion. The increasing digital penetration and surge of smart phones in developing countries are main reasons for rapid growth of mobile users. The mobile or smart phone users in India are supposed to be 442 million by 2022.India is rapidly becoming ecommerce hub and many ecommerce giants have already started their efforts to capture the etrade or ecommerce market. Therefore, mobile first indexing change is not only important for big giants but also crucial for small ecommerce or etrade business owners.
How mobile first indexing will impact search engine ranking?
The mobile first indexing will increase crawling rate and hence can have impact on page ranking in mobile search results. The fast loading content will do better whether it is mobile or desktop version. The snippets in Google search results are also generated from the content of mobile version. Google will prefer to index non AMP pages.
How you can check whether the site is mobile friendly or not?
Google is continuously encouraging migration to mobile versions of the content. The webmasters can check whether their site is mobile friendly or not. Follow Google instructions for better migration.
Will desktop version be still used for indexing?
Yes, if you have only desktop version of the site, it will continue to be used for indexing. Since many your competitors are already improving user experience and started migrating to mobile version therefore it is wise that your site too should be mobile friendly to get better mobile search results. The mobile users will continue to increase at rapid rate. The affordability, availability of smart phones and surge of mobile apps for almost everything are main reasons for larger mobile users.
How mobile first indexing will impact search engine ranking?
However, according to Google there is no bias among mobile and desktop versions of the site when it comes to ranking. Even if a site don’t have mobile version the desktop version will be used for indexing and crawling on mobile device. But it is known fact that some of the desktop features may not work properly in different mobile with varying screen sizes. So overall this may give bad user impression and can increase bounce rate.
Some of the user interface objects may not appear properly in different sizes of mobile devices. The loading of objects may take time and can annoy the mobile users. Therefore all these small things may cause bad user experience and indirectly affect the site ranking. The high bounce rate will have negative impression on users and ranking.
Since ecommerce and etrade has become throat cut competition sector so who would like to lose new prospects and give an edge to their competitors who are not leaving any stone unturned to capture the organic traffic. The small business owners don’t have big sites to manage or migrate to mobile version so they can take lead and increase user experience on different mobile devices. The small business owners need to grab such opportunities to increase their online visibility and brand promotion.
The surge of mobile and smart phones in developing countries like India and China cannot be ignored from ecommerce point of view. The increasing digital penetration will further enhance the mobile users in these countries. The digital penetration in India is still low but in coming time the maximum people will be using mobile or smart phones.
What can be done to make the site more mobile friendly?
It is not big deal to make site more mobile friendly. It can be achieved by looking and testing your site on different mobile devices on varying sizes. The focus should be on look and feel and compatibility on different screen sizes. Some of the desktop elements may not load or take more time so it is better to get rid of them. Follow the Google guidelines for better migration.