All You Need to Know About Google’s First Mobile Index
In November 2016, Google announced their plan to start mobile-first indexing. Because more and more people are switching from desktop searching to mobile searching, Google wants to focus on mobile versions of websites. With mobile-first indexing, Google will consider the mobile version of a site as the primary source for ranking. San Diego web design professionals discuss the salient features of mobile-first indexing.
The index encourages site creators to focus on their mobile versions. Some mobile sites don’t have as much content or aren’t as easy to navigate. Now, the mobile-first indexing will promote sites with strong mobile versions and penalize sites with low-quality mobile versions.
Google tested the mobile-first indexing in 2016. Throughout 2017, they have continued testing the plan. Although they originally intended to launch mobile-first indexing in 2017, it’s unclear how much longer they plan to test before launching.
In a Google webmaster hangout, Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable asked John Mueller of Google how the testing was going and whether there were any updates. SEO experts are eager to hear news of the mobile-first indexing plan so they can know what changes they’ll need to make for their mobile sites to rank well.
Mueller did not have much news about the mobile-first indexing. However, he did assure listeners the testing was going well and that it seems like there will be a smooth transition when it launches. He said, “So the team is currently still doing various types of evaluations to kind of double-check the classifiers that we have and make sure we can recognize when a site is ready for mobile-first indexing. And that is something that is taking a bit of time.”
Although there weren’t big updates on the plan, the transition will hopefully go as smoothly as Mueller stated. SEO experts and site creators should stay alert for updates so they know when to expect the official launch of mobile-first indexing.
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