It's going to be a BIG Change: Is this the Next Mobilegeddon?
'Mobilegeddon' set the tone for a new standard of mobile optimisation back in 2015. The Google algorithm update favoured mobile friendly websites and boosted them in Google mobile search results.
This reflected the change in user behaviours as mobile search overtook desktop for the first time. As we head into the latter part of 2017, could the new Google algorithm update have as big an impact as Mobilegeddon?
An introduction to Mobile First Indexing
You may have heard the term ‘Mobile-first’ around 9 months ago in November 2016, as the new trend in the SEO market. This encouraged designing a website around an online experience for mobile, rather than it being an afterthought.
60% of Google searches come from mobile devices and it is now seen as a standard requirement from Google. If your website is not responsive, you are not providing the best User Experience (UX) for your users and this can massively effect SEO – leading to your website suffering in search results.
Due to this, Google is shifting the way it indexes its content. The new Google algorithm ‘Mobile first indexing’ will now treat mobile versions of pages as primary content and desktop as secondary when indexing and ranking pages in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
This means that mobile and desktop versions need to reflect the same content and provide the same links throughout in order to deliver an optimum user experience.
“If you have a responsive site, then you’re pretty much good to go,” he said. “Why? Because the content on your desktop site will be pretty much the same on your responsive site. The structured data on your desktop site will be the same. There is going to be slight differences in how you present the data, but we’re trying to be prepared.”
- Gary IIIyes, Google Webmaster Trends Analysts
When is the Release?
The mobile first indexing algorithm update seems to still be several months away and we are still waiting for an official release date from Google. However, we do know that the update is in the pipeline and is currently being tested – set to roll out in the next few months. Due to this it is vital that your website is prepared ahead of this update!
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