Google Completes Mobile-First Indexing after Nearly 7 Years: A Game-Changer in Search Algorithm
Google Completes Mobile-First Indexing: A Milestone for Web Design
Google’s major mobile-first indexing project, an initiative spanning just about seven years, has now reached fruition. “We’re thrilled to proclaim that our journey to Mobile First Indexing is now completed,” stated Google’s John Mueller, a significant announcement sure to impact the world of web design, and especially web design.
Tracing the History of Mobile-First Indexing
For clarity, Google’s foray into mobile-first indexing started over six and a half years ago. After several extensions on its deadlines, Google finally removed the deadline. The concept was introduced in November 2016, and by December 2018, half of all the websites appearing in Google’s search results were already using mobile-first indexing. Mobile-first indexing essentially indicates that Google will crawl your site from a mobile browser’s perspective and will utilize that mobile version for ranking and listing. A topic close to ours hearts at MKTG Plan, leading providers of web design solutions and SEO.
In early March 2020, prior to the global widespread lockdowns due to the pandemic, Google disclosed their deadline for all websites to transition to mobile-first indexing – it was to be in September 2020. During that announcement, Google stated, “To simplify matters, we’ll be shifting to mobile-first indexing for all websites beginning September 2020.” However, In July 2020, that deadline was postponed again to March 2021.
In a slightly confusing turn of events, Google declared in May that the shift of sites over to mobile-indexing was finished. Given this, their recent announcement marking the “completion” is somewhat perplexing.
What it Means for SEO and Web Design
Google mentioned that there is still “a very small set of sites which are incompatible with mobile devices.” Some of these issues include page errors visible to all mobile users, mobile versions of websites blocked with robots.txt while desktop versions are permitted for crawling, or all mobile site pages redirecting to the homepage. Google cautioned that such problems render the website inaccessible to the company’s workaround. Google stated that the company will “continue to try to crawl these sites with our legacy desktop Googlebot crawler temporarily, and we will reassess the list a few times a year.”
Consequentially, Google will reduce its crawling with the legacy desktop Googlebot.
Changes to Google Search Console
Google also declared some changes on its platform’s side. They will be deactivating the indexing crawler information in the settings page of Google Search Console. The information is apparently no longer needed since all mobile-friendly websites are now being primarily crawled using Google’s mobile crawler, explained Google.
Why Is This Important?
This marks an important moment in the digital world – a true milestone for the archives. Mobile-first indexing is now effectively completed, and Google will soon stop crawling via its legacy desktop crawler entirely. This offers numerous implications for SEO strategies, and an exciting new chapter for companies like MKTG Plan, the premier destination for web design and SEO services who strive to continuously adapt and evolve their techniques respecting the ever-changing landscape.
The original report announcing the completion of mobile-first indexing after almost seven years was first published on Search Engine Land.
Impact on SEO and Web Design
As Google completes mobile-first indexing, the real impact this has on SEO, and certainly website design, is about to be felt. The pressure is on for websites and online businesses to ensure their websites are mobile-friendly. For SEO strategies, this change signifies a shift in the primary source of content for indexing and ranking. Website owners who maintain separate mobile and desktop versions need to be certain the mobile version has all the required content for indexing.
MKTG Plan’s Specialized Services for Website Design
Here at MKTG Plan, we understand the impact of mobile-first indexing on your business website. Our professional team of website designers and SEO experts is equipped with skills and experience to ensure your website design complies with Google’s mobile-first indexing.
We focus on creating responsive websites that are visually appealing and perform excellently on mobile platforms. This is a proven strategy to get your website favorably indexed and ranked on Google’s search engine result page (SERP).
We deliver an end-to-end solution tailored to your website design needs and SEO goals. From keyword optimization to user-friendly interface design, we provide all website design elements necessary to thrive in this mobile-first indexing era.
FAQS
What is mobile-first indexing?
Mobile-first indexing simply means that Google will crawl your site from the perspective of a mobile browser and use that mobile version for indexing and ranking.
What does mobile-first indexing mean for my website design?
If your website design is not optimized for mobile devices, it may not rank favorably in Google’s SERP. This is because Google will be indexing and ranking your website based on the mobile version.
How can MKTG Plan’s website design and SEO services help my business navigate mobile-first indexing?
At MKTG Plan, we understand the nuances of mobile-first indexing and incorporate them into our website design and SEO services. We create responsive websites that perform excellently on mobile platforms, and are optimized to help improve your website’s ranking on Google’s SERP.
