What does it mean to have a mobile-first website?

We know the rise of smart phones has greatly increased the number of mobile visitors on many websites, with small screen devices outnumbering desktop visits for lots of website owners. You may have even heard of the term “mobile-first” when it comes to designing your website, focusing on providing a great user experience on a small screen – often referred to as responsive web design. But we’ve come a long way since the introduction of the smart phone and so has Google. So much so that our SEO efforts are more and more influenced by the use of mobile devices.

Google has been working on its mobile-first index since 2016 and crawling websites with a smartphone Googlebot (as well as a desktop Googlebot). But in September 2020, Google began mobile-first indexing for all websites, meaning they began crawling and analysing websites as a mobile user would, assessing content and page experience from a mobile perspective. Therefore, how Google ranks websites is now more mobile focused than ever with only one Google index – the mobile-first one!

What this means for you and your website

Your mobile experience is now more important than ever. If your website isn’t responsive or mobile friendly, you can expect to see a negative impact on your rankings on both mobile and desktop searches.

It’s therefore essential you provide Google with the information it needs to assess your website, not just on a desktop, but on a mobile too. If you serve the same website for all users, there’s less you need to think about, but if you serve different content for mobile users, there’s a few things you need to be aware of.

If you show mobile users different URLs to desktop users, it’s the mobile URLs that will appear in search, regardless of the device used to conduct the search, so you could be sending desktop traffic to your mobile site.

If you hide content from mobile users that you would usually show for desktop users, this can cause issues with mobile indexing as Google won’t be access everything on your page. Google’s advice, therefore, is to provide the same experience for all users, regardless of device.

Google Search Console is your friend here. Check under the Experience menu for mobile usability issues that could negatively affect how Google crawls your content and ranks your website.

Have you noticed a drop in rankings or traffic from Google over the last 12 months? Currently have a separate mobile experience for users? Or haven’t yet invested in a mobile, responsive website? Mobile-first indexing is here to stay, so it’s essential to review your website regularly for any mobile issues that could impact your rankings.