It’s been years in the planning and implementation but Google finally announced in the last quarter that the 100% mobile-first index is here.
What is the mobile-first index?
Google crawls (inspects) websites to find new information and then adds this to their index. Similar to a library acquiring new books.
When users input queries into Google, the platform retrieves results from that index. Like giving you the book you requested.
Google’s systems determine which format that result should be in, for example, a shopping carousel, image, video, news headlines or even the old-fashioned list of links.
And, they determine which entries in their index best meet the intention behind your query. That’s the theory at least.
Desktop to mobile crawler
Now, all of the above, from initial website crawl to indexation and scoring, was once done by a desktop crawler. However Google realised many years ago that worldwide mobile usage was surpassing desktop usage. In Asia, for example, pretty much everyone is using mobiles, while few can even turn a computer on.
As a result Google identified the need to evaluate websites based on how they were most used, hence the shift to mobile indexing using a Googlebot smartphone crawler.
This feature has been rolling out for years but is finally reaching the end goal: a 100% mobile index.
What does this mean for you?
Well, we’d argue, quite a lot. Quite simply, how your website performs on mobile is, in effect, all that matters to Google.
That’s why when we conduct technical site audits, our auditors inspect websites on their mobile phone and not just their desktop computers.
We find many sites that perform perfectly on desktop have multiple glitches on mobile. After all, web designers normally sit in front of huge monitors when creating sites. These glitches range from incorrectly sized images or images that move around, to being unable to access key content.
So how do you think Google will evaluate such sites? Yes, you’re right, badly.
Bespoke mobile optimisation is paramount to make sure you test your own site’s ease of use.
Or if you would like our developers or auditors to check your site’s mobile optimisation, just get in touch and we’ll do this for you for free.
