Google recently announced the postponement of Mobile First Index, aiming to give developers more time to adapt their websites. To the joy of many, the deadline, which was previously September 2020, was extended by more than six months and became March 2021.
This happened as a way to help those who needed to change the focus of their efforts due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the postponement, it is not time to relax. Optimizing the website so that it works well on mobile will be essential for those who invest in marketing strategies. SEO, so it is important to start as soon as possible.
Read the text below and understand what will be needed!
First of all, what does the Mobile First Index consist of?
Translated into Portuguese, Mobile First Index literally means, “mobile first”. This means that the main version that will be considered on a website will be the one that is aimed at mobile devices, and no longer for the desktop, as was the case until recently.
The announcement that this would be implemented was made in 2018, so many sites are already being indexed this way.
But why is it necessary to adopt the Mobile First Index?
According to a survey carried out by Google, out of every five searches carried out on the internet, three are done using mobile devices. This number shows that mobile is now the main way for people to access the internet, leaving the desktop behind.
This is already a good reason for the Google Mobile First Index prioritize optimizing your company's website. However, there is another fact that needs to be taken into consideration. According to Digital-Stats, around 75% of searches on online shopping pages are also carried out via mobile devices. In other words, investing in this is an excellent way to increase the number of sales in your e-commerce, for example.
In addition, there is also the issue imposed by Google, which we discussed earlier. According to the official Mobile First Index document, from the date imposed, one of the main ranking variables on Google will be good optimization for mobile devices, therefore, those who do not invest in this will end up falling behind and losing space on the first pages of the platform.
What should be the main changes?
As you saw earlier, this change in Google indexing will make mobile search more important than desktop, so this has to be the central focus of your strategies from now on.
With that in mind, there are some points that need attention. Check them out:
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Make a mobile-friendly website
This is the minimum that must be done to continue ranking well on the first pages of Google. But, what does mobile-friendly? Well, it means that the design of your web page must be responsive so that it can adapt when a user accesses it from a mobile device.
In other words, it is necessary to pay attention to both the visual and textual content of the website, file size, dimensions and several other factors. In addition, the user's navigation must be pleasant, since Google values the visitor's experience on the website when ranking.
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“AMP” or Mobile Accessed Pages
Simply put, this point consists of the speed at which the website pages load. In the Mobile First Index, the time it takes for them to load will be taken into account when Google's robots perform the ranking.
According to some statistics, 53% of users abandon a mobile page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load completely, so it is also an important point for those who do not want to lose organic traffic.
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Desktop data and content must be adapted for the mobile version
If you browse the internet and access the same websites, both on a desktop and mobile device, you will see that many have significant changes depending on the device from which the person accesses the page, with mobile devices almost always having leaner and less elaborate content than when the site is accessed on a computer, for example.
And this is a big problem. After all, since the mobile version will be taken into account when ranking, these pages will have a big problem, as there will be a loss of content.
For this reason, ideally both versions should have complete content and be well structured, with titles and subtitles used correctly.
Is your website ready?
The Mobile First Index will arrive as a Google tool to try to improve the user experience on the pages searched on its platform. Therefore, Investing in these “preparations” is essential for companies that don’t want to lose their space!