Mobile first indexing everything we need to know and how it could affect you
From the past few months there have been speculations about Google planning to change the indexing pattern. The news got confirmed when Google announced that it will be experimenting with the search engine indexing based on mobile searches. All the website owners and webmasters were in dilemma that what exactly will be happening. But keep my word, if you are using best WordPress themes which are 100% responsive, then no damage would occur.
What is Mobile-First Indexing?
Till now Google search rankings were based only on the desktop versions of the website. With the increase in mobile traffic and mobile searches, this created a difference between mobile rankings and desktop rankings. There was a need to get a consensus. So, Google came up with the concept that there will be a change in the indexing pattern. The website having mobile versions will have their indexing done by a mobile version of the website and not by their desktop one. If in case the website doesn’t have any mobile version, then the indexing will be done as it was done before. But these sites will not be benefitted by the policy of “mobile friendly ranking boost” by Google.
But in case you are having a responsive website you are at a higher edge of getting benefitted. The reason is simply that the internal and the external structure of the website remains the same in case of the responsive website whether you view it on desktop, mobile, tab or iPhone.
Things you need to consider
There are several factors which you need to consider and restructure if you are using two different versions of websites (mobile and desktop). I have gathered information regarding what all can be done to save the damage or loss of SEO juice.
1. Uniformity in Content
As we know, the website cannot run without a powerful and engaging content. But sometimes you may have considered ripping off some part of the website while moving to mobile website. Make sure you haven’t done that. The alternatives can be by putting up a “read more” button for lengthy descriptions or “show more” in case of long product listings. You cannot simply compromise on these small things if you want to keep your SEO juice intact. This will make sure that the web crawlers have same data both with desktop and mobile version of your website.
2. Faster loading of WebPages
If your web page is taking more than three seconds to load, then you must find out the reason of slow loading speed. When it comes to mobile browser, you need to take into consideration of the mobile speeds as well. The loading speed may differ with wi-fi and other 3G/4G speeds. Your website must load in minimum time irrespective of the speed. Only the website will be able to retain the customers else it will increase the bounce rates. Google ranks the fast loading websites higher than others.
3. Site structure
Internal linking is the main problem that makes the user experience to fall down in case of a website having two separate URL’s for the same website. It may happen that users may find content easily on desktop version but have to struggle with navigation in order to get that desired link. So if there is any discrepancy in internal linking of the two versions, there is a reason to worry.
The solution is to have a fully responsive website with best WordPress themes. These websites will not be affected by any type change in indexing algorithm by Google. Good Luck!!
