Mobile First Indexing
Mobile First Indexing is a unique process launched by internet giant Google in the year March 2018. It involves the migration of websites to the mobile first index. The Google harness the content’s mobile version for ranking, indexing and migrating. Today, most of the potential users across the globe are accessing Google via mobile devices. As a result, the index would use the mobile version of a particular page. Only a single index is used instead of relying on a separate mobile first index. The Google indexes and navigates through the pages via Smartphone agent. A URL is displayed on the desktop screen or mobile phones in the search results that suit the internet users. Those who desire to prepare for mobile first indexing, it is essential to go through the below-mentioned practices.
1. The contents included in the mobile site should be similar to that contained in desktop versions. If in case the volume of content in the mobile site is lower when compared to desktop sites, then it is highly recommended to update the mobile site in order to make it identical. Ex: Texts, Videos, and images in indexable formats.
2. Ensure that the URL’s in structured data is frequently updated and included in mobile as well as desktop versions. Those users who incorporate Data Highlighter to furnish structured data should keep track of the Data Highlighter Dashboard on a regular basis to avoid extraction errors.
3. You need to make sure that metadata is included in mobile and desktop versions. Both titles and Meta descriptions should be identical in all respects.
4. In order to access data and messages in desktop and mobile versions, they need to be checked and verified with the help of a Search Console. The website encounters a shift of data upon activation of mobile first indexing.
5. Always keep track of hreflang links:-
Equation rel=hreflang should be interconnected between desktop and mobile versions. The hreflang of the mobile URL should be directed towards mobile URL while hreflang of the desktop needs to be directed towards desktop URL’s.
6. Users need to confirm whether the servers have the capacity to manage a huge volume of crawls in the mobile version.
7. Verify that robots.txt directives are activated in mobile and desktop versions. It would enable the users to identify which parts of the site are crawled or not.
8. The site owners would have to ensure that equations rel=canonical as well as the rel=alternate link, exist within mobile and desktop versions.
One of the major advantages of mobile first indexing is that it is helpful especially for those who wish to enhance the mobile search results. It is a user-friendly tool that speeds up content loading while catering to the expectations of both desktop and mobile users. The potential Internet users will be able to read the website content with ease. Those who have a responsive site, the contents will be the same in both the versions. This would automatically escalate the rankings of a specific website.