Have you heard about Google switching to a mobile-first index in the near future, but if you’re not sure what this means or how it will work on your site, don’t worry. With modest research, you won’t have to worry about Google turning your rankings upside down. Here in this article, you will get the complete explanation about the basics of the update and you can take steps to prepare.
Right now, as you know, Google crawls from a desktop user’s point of view and thus catalogs websites according to the desktop version. But with this latest update, genuine content on a mobile site has no effect on the desktop site’s ranking in the SERPs currently.
This Google update was introduced in November 2016, more than ten months ago. Some people call this update an “experiment,” but in reality, it’s really the main move in Google’s intended move to primarily look at mobile, rather than desktop, content when deciding how to rate results.
Now, for your concern, it is good to mention that if you are using a responsive design, you should be fine with this latest update. Technically, the mobile and desktop version has similar content that can be easily accessed on mobile and desktop devices. But if you’re using different mobile URLs, or using different content on your mobile URLs via dynamic serving, you need to be very careful. Somehow this update can cause colossal problems, including a drop in URL rankings on mobile and desktop versions. To make sure you need to take some action regarding this issue, website owners can test their site on Google’s Page Speed Insights tool. This tool will help you check all the important aspects of your website.
Mobile-first indexing is the new search norm, with users using mobile devices to search on mobile devices. With most web users now using mobile devices, Google is changing the way it indexes content. Historically, even after the first mobile update, Google will keep its reliance on a solitary index of apps and pages.
In fact, Google has been experimenting with this update for at least 10 months, but here the question arises: why haven’t we seen this change yet? In March, a Google insider stated that Google wants to start mobile-first indexing this year, there is no official timeline for this process to start and it may take a few more months to start. In the meantime, he strongly suggests that all sites review their current mobile system for smartphones and understand how Google sees their mobile content. Don’t wait for the search engines to act… the time to act is now.
