Google Has Suddenly Implemented "Mobile-First Indexing"! What SEO Services Should Businesses Adopt to Respond?

Arachne Group Limited Reminds You: "If your website has not yet been optimized for the mobile user experience, it's highly likely to be ranked lower by Google~!"

The long-anticipated "Mobile-First Indexing" has been fully rolled out as of March 2021. This means website rankings are now primarily evaluated based on their mobile versions. Businesses that have not optimized their mobile sites are highly likely to see an impact on their organic search traffic.

Why Has Google Suddenly Implemented "Mobile-First Indexing"?

Mobile-First Indexing, as the name implies, means Google will use the mobile version of a website as the benchmark for determining its ranking in the search results pages. In other words, compared to desktop site optimization, websites that prioritize mobile optimization will find it easier to achieve higher rankings and gain significant exposure.

In fact, "Mobile-First Indexing" did not arrive suddenly; Google has been laying the groundwork for it over many years:

● 2016/11/04: Initially launched "mobile-first indexing"

● 2018/03/26: Google officially enabled mobile-first indexing and released the "Best Practices for Mobile-First Indexing" guide.

● 2018/12/19: Announced that over half of all search results were already using mobile-first indexing.

● 2019/07/01: Declared that all newly created websites would have mobile-first indexing enabled by default.

● 2020/03/05: Google announced that starting September 2020, all websites would transition to mobile-first indexing, but this was later postponed to March 2021.

What SEO Services Should Businesses Adopt to Respond to "Mobile-First Indexing"?

Since the launch of "Mobile-First Indexing," many clients have consulted Arachne Group Limited: Does this mean websites only need to focus on mobile SEO?

That... certainly... is not the case! When Google elaborated on "Mobile-First Indexing," it specifically mentioned a key rule: It is essential to ensure consistency between the desktop and mobile versions in terms of content, images, meta descriptions, and structured data. This brings us to a very important concept – Responsive Web Design (RWD).

What is Responsive Web Design? Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a design approach that uses a single website design to automatically adapt to different devices' screen sizes and resolutions. Its core objective is to ensure users receive a consistent and optimized browsing experience on any device, eliminating the need to develop multiple separate versions for different devices.

Note: Responsive Web Design not only complies with current and future SEO standards, but Google also recommends using responsive design techniques. Furthermore, even if a website already uses RWD, it still needs to adhere to Google's official "Best Practices for Mobile-First Indexing" guide, such as:

— The mobile and desktop versions must use the same Robots Meta Tags.

— Google will not display content that requires user interaction to appear.

— The mobile and desktop versions should use uniform resource URLs.

— When linking to specific resources, both mobile and desktop sites should use the same URL and avoid using the 'disallow' directive to block resources that should be crawled by Googlebot.

— …


A Reminder: If your mobile and desktop websites do not use the same URL and cannot be converted to RWD in the short term, consider the following methods to mitigate the impact on your website's SEO:

• Ensure the error status codes (e.g., 404s) are consistent between the mobile and desktop versions.

• Ensure meta data is consistent between the mobile and desktop versions.

• Avoid using Fragment URLs on the mobile site.

• Ensure mobile pages correspond to their desktop counterparts with equivalent content.

• …


If you are prepared for "Mobile-First Indexing," the next step is to check if your website has the following errors, which could affect subsequent SEO performance:

① Slow Mobile Site Load Speed

Google Analytics data shows that the average mobile site takes over 10 seconds to load, but users often become impatient and leave if it takes more than 1 second.

Solution: Regularly use Google PageSpeed Insights to test your site's load speed and optimize based on its recommendations.

② Blocking CSS, JavaScript, or Images

Blocking CSS, JavaScript, or images on the mobile site can prevent consistency with the desktop version, affecting Google's indexing.

Solution: Most modern smartphones have sufficient capability to handle these elements, so avoid blocking them unless absolutely necessary.

③ Use of Flash Animation

Flash has a very negative SEO impact as it cannot be effectively crawled and indexed, harms page load speed and user experience, and leads to ranking drops.

Solution: Use modern technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 for animations, and focus on high-quality content, page speed, and mobile compatibility.

④ Intrusive Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads negatively impact SEO by harming user experience and page load speed. Google considers them a negative ranking factor.

Solution: Replace intrusive interstitials with banner ads that are less disruptive.

⑤ Accidentally-Tappable Elements

On small screens, CTA buttons, links, and fields placed too close together can cause accidental taps.

Solution: Increase the spacing between tappable elements and ensure they are sized appropriately for touch.

⑥ Content Extending Beyond the Viewport

Incorrect viewport configuration causing content to overflow hurts user experience and conflicts with Mobile-First Indexing principles.

Solution: Use the viewport meta tag and set relative widths/positions with CSS to ensure proper scaling.

⑦ Incorrect Redirects

Ensure links on the mobile site correctly redirect to their corresponding desktop pages to avoid conflicts with Mobile-First Indexing requirements.

Solution:

A. Monitor Google Search Console for messages about redirect errors.

B. Configure your server to ensure mobile URLs correctly correspond to desktop URLs.

C. If no mobile-specific URL exists for a desktop page, keep users on the desktop version.

D. Adopt RWD to serve the same content to all users.


Since Google announced "Mobile-First Indexing," many businesses have had questions. Here are answers to some common ones:

1. Does the website content structure need major revisions?

The key is consistency between desktop and mobile content. If your site already uses RWD, you're likely set. Otherwise, modifications may be needed to ensure consistency.

2. Does Google only rank based on the mobile site now?

Mobile-First Indexing means Google primarily uses the mobile version for ranking, but it still crawls and indexes the desktop content.

3. What if the website has no mobile version?

If a site has no mobile version, Google will still index the desktop content. However, its SEO ranking will likely be less ideal compared to mobile-friendly sites. If you are struggling with mobile site development, consider seeking help from a Hong Kong web design company! Arachne Group Limited's team has extensive experience in both web design and SEO services, capable of fully meeting various business needs. If you require any web solutions, feel free to contact us!

Contact Phone: 852-37499734

Email Address: info@hkweb.com.hk

Website: https://hkweb.com.hk