In April of 2018, Google rolled out the Mobile First Index, responding to the growing use of mobile devices. Thus, the importance of mobile optimized websites has once again increased. Louisa Wanjek from artaxo GmbH summarizes the Mobile First Index and gives nine tips for mobile website optimization.
What is the Mobile First Index?
The Mobile First Index is all about mobile search. Mobile First means that Google rates and indexes websites primarily based on their mobile version, rather than based on the desktop version so far. Furthermore, there is only one index. Its basis has only changed. This means that now the contents of the mobile pages are crucial for the ranking. The Mobile First Index was announced for the first time in November 2016 . It was officially launched in April 2018. Based on the prioritized assessment of mobile content, Google aims to help mobile users to respond appropriately to their search queries . Thus, this change is an answer to the growing use of mobile search: estimated 57 percent of search traffic via mobile devices.
What does the Mobile First Index mean for SEO?
Each website should have a mobile-optimized version as digitization increases. The important thing is: Optimize your website not just for mobile devices, because Google recommends this. Above all, think about your users and answer the following questions:
What content interests users? How do you like the content quickly? How can the usability of the website be made as pleasant as possible?
Act according to the motto "User First". Pay attention also to changed circumstances, which brings the mobile search with itself. These include z. As a different search and usage behavior on mobile devices, as on desktop and another representation in the SERPs. With the mobile optimization of your websites you can address these changes. You have three options :
- Responsive Design : Your website has a version that is automatically customized via CSS to the screen size of the device. According to Google, this is the recommended approach .
- Dynamic Deployment : Depending on the device, users will see different content on your site. The server transmits different HTML versions at the same URL depending on the device.
- Different URLs : Each desktop URL has a URL that optimizes content for mobile devices ("m.dot site"). So there are two versions of your website, one for desktop, one for mobile.
Why does Google recommend responsive web design?
From the user's point of view, there are also some advantages for responsive design. Thus, the website always adapts automatically to the respective terminal and the loading times are shorter due to the unnecessary forwarding.
When should website owners act?
According to Google, website owners do not have to change anything on their website with the following prerequisites : The website has a responsive web design or the website has implemented dynamic content delivery without errors (equivalent contents and markups for mobile and desktop). If this is not the case, optimization measures are required. With the following nine SEO tips, you can make your website fit for the Mobile First Index.
9 SEO Tips for the Mobile First Index
1. Check the status of the website
Use programs like Google's Mobile-Friendly tool to find out if your site is mobile-friendly .
2. Verify both website versions
If you have a mobile page but have not yet entered it in Google Search Console , you should do so. This will give the search engine the existence of this website version.
3. Optimize mobile loading times
Since the Google Page Speed Update in July 2018, the load time on mobile devices is a ranking factor. The faster your website loads, the better. Google recommends a maximum of 3 seconds . You can reduce your loading time with various measures, such as: For example, image enhancement, reduction of 301 redirects, or reduction of CSS and HTML resources. Google's PageSpeed Insights tool analyzes your website and provides helpful tips for improving your speed.
4. Use structured data
Structured data helps the search engine to understand the contents of your website more easily. For both versions of the website, you should use structured data that also matches. Compare both versions of your website with the Structured Data Testing Tool .
5. Optimize metadata
All your URLs should have complete metadata that is equivalent for both versions of the site. The meta-statements of both versions should therefore contain the same information and keywords. Title and description for the mobile version may be slightly shorter. Recommended are currently a title of about 65 characters and a description of 100-145 characters. To check offers z. For example, the serps simulator .
6. Enable crawling
Make sure your mobile website is accessible to the Google Bot. To do this, you should define in the robots.txt file at the root of your website which sections of your website the desktop and which of the mobile crawlers are allowed to access. The robots.txt Testing Tool is helpful for checking .
7. Check Hreflang links
If you have a multilingual website, you should review your Hreflang links and create separate links between mobile and desktop URLs . This means: The links of your mobile website must point to the mobile version of the other language versions and the links of the desktop version to the respective desktop URLs.
8. Customize content
If you have a separate mobile website version, make sure you have all the important contents of the desktop version there. In addition to the texts, these include pictures and videos. Make sure the formats can be crawled and indexed. With old attributes for pictures. Particularly important is also the "thumb-friendly" of the mobile website: Buttons should z. B. easily clickable and the font be legible. Test this extensively.
9. Create enough server capacity
Make sure your servers can handle an increasing crawl rate .
Conclusion
If you only have a desktop version of your website so far, Google will continue to consider it in the ranking, but with the mobile crawler. So it's possible that your website is worse off than mobile-optimized websites. If you are creating a mobile version, you should not do it too quickly. According to Google, a working desktop site may be better than a broken, incomplete mobile version. Therefore, do not launch your mobile website until it is really done.
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