Google has started to test mobile-first indexing, indicating that mobile content is an important factor when deciding on rank results.
The search engine giant will primarily look at the mobile version of websites to determine ranking signals. As most of Google’s searches are via mobiles, it will now start looking at links, content and structured data of mobile version websites.
Although it is still in the testing stage Google is aiming to roll it fully to all, resulting in an enhanced user experience.
Google commented:
To make our results more useful, we’ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. Of course, while our index will be built from mobile documents, we’re going to continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.
If there is no mobile version available Google will revert back to the desktop version to rank the website. It would be a good idea to implement a mobile site as there are many benefits, including the mobile-friendly ranking boost as well as giving users a great experience.
Prepare for change
Our advice is to make sure you follow google’s recommendations to prepare for the planned change. A site configuration where the core content and markup is dissimilar for both mobile & desktop will need consideration to ensure that you are ready for the shift.
If your site is responsive or a dynamic serving site then you should be fine.
