mobile-first indexing is rolling out July 5, 2024, are you ready?
Beginning July 5, Google will be a “mobile-first” indexing platform. Google warned us back in 2015 that this was approaching and now that mobile users make up over 60% of search consumers, the time has come.
So…. what is mobile-first indexing?
Essentially, starting July 5, 2024, Google prioritizes evaluating and indexing the mobile version of your business website over the desktop version — regardless of how high-performing your desktop site is. Your mobile design now holds the ultimate rank and index power and needs to be prioritized over your desktop design. Wildly, it took Google 7 years to collect and prepare all the existing web data to finally roll this out now. That’s so much info!
Who does mobile-first indexing impact?
Mobile-first indexing will impact all websites crawled and ranked by Google. Businesses and brands who have a website that does not have quick, efficient mobile optimization will be most impacted by this shift in search indexing.
This is vital news for business owners; for any website that is not mobile optimized, Google will simply not index it.
What lack of mobile indexing can mean:
lost traction in search rank results
a major hit to your website traffic
reduction in brand visibility
loss of product or service sales
We’ve known this was coming (for years) and many website owners are already working with responsive and mobile-optimized designs. Thankfully, Squarespace integrates much of this mobile prioritization seamlessly into its 7.1 version making responsive design already part of the program for current and updated Squarespace platform users. Get tips for how to keep your site mobile-friendly on Squarespace.
So what can you do now about mobile-first indexing?
Now more than ever, the following SEO items should be a high priority as the July 5 mobile-first index priority start date looms:
Site speed - is your mobile content quick to load?
Responsive design - does your design flow and change with the users device size + orientation?
Meta data - does your mobile site have accurate meta data?
Mobile content - is your mobile content same as desktop content?
Site Navigation - is your user-interface (UI) engaging and easy to follow? how is your user-experience (UX)?
Design elements - how does the typeface spacing, or content spacing translate to mobile viewing?
When choosing the digital audit service from advisory house design, your findings report will absolutely include mobile oversight. Learn more about your digital audit options.
For those ready to roll up their sleeves and commit to ensuring your UI is as mobile-ready as can be, here are some trusted resources to track your SEO efforts, find your page errors, and determine where you need to improve your site for speed and rankability.
I offer a digital audit with a findings report of issues, errors, and site speeds that can save you a ton of time and serve as a sort of map — or blueprint — to your SEO initiatives for ranking higher. Now is a really important time to ensure your website indexes in the mobile space. (Click the button below to get more info on that.)
As always, I’m here to help if you need me.
B
