Go with Google

January 27, 2021

Thinking of launching your new website concept this year? Here are some recent developments around how Google will index websites starting this March 2021, that you should keep in mind during your web process.

We constantly keep up with the latest news regarding how Google index’s and ranks websites to stay informed as Web is fluid and changes every day.

In the past, Google has placed much emphasis on the desktop display of websites, as most users previously accessed the web on a personal computer (or Desktop).

There is a new rumour in the Web industry, that Google is planning to enforce ‘mobile-only’ indexing when crawling sites to determine their rank (Your website will only be ranked for mobile optimised display).

What is mobile-first indexing?

Google has been working on mobile-first indexing for years now, but starting this year Google will officially be taking the ‘mobile-only’ approach.

This means that Google will rank your website on how well the site’s mobile display follows Google’s guidelines, as more and more people are viewing websites on their smartphones and mobile devices.

According to Google Search Central, 70% of sites are compliant and follow a mobile-first approach already.

NOTE: Those old sites that are not responsive will still be indexed according to their desktop display until they are ready to be ranked on their mobile display, although bear in mind, Google will penalise non-compliant domains.

Once Google switches a domain to mobile-first indexing the site will experience an increase in Googlebot’s crawling. The site will be in the hot-seat, so to speak, while Google scans the site to check its mobile status.

Although Google will still index non-compliant websites based on their desktop display, mobile-indexing will be the order of the day.

How can I make my site mobile-friendly?

Here are some points, listed by Google, on how to make your site work well for mobile-indexing:

1. Make sure that Googlebot can access and render your content.
2. Make sure that content is the same on desktop and mobile.
3. Check your structured data and make sure that it’s present on both versions of your site.
4. Ensure that the placement of ads is not ruining your page ranking. Try following Better ads Standard when placing ads on your mobile display.
5. Check your visual content such as imagery and videos.
6. Additional best practices for separate URLs.
7. Troubleshooting.
8. Recent updates.

We recommend getting advice from an SEO professional and a design and development agency on how to increase your site’s Google ranking.

Don’t be left behind on Google’s page #100 (or worse).
Get in contact with us and we will advise you on how to make it to page #1.