According to official Google statistics, more than half of search queries come from mobile devices. In response, Google is starting to reward and give mobile-friendly sites higher ranking. This is referred to as Google’s mobile-first ranking system.
Until recently, Google sent crawlers to index the desktop version of websites. This was until most search queries started happening on mobile devices. This tipping-point occurred in 2016.
Now, mobile responsive websites will be ranked before sites that are not. Essentially, Google is now crawling and indexing through a mobile-friendly lens instead of a desktop friendly one.
Businesses that do not have a mobile-responsive site won’t suddenly become invisible on the web. But, if a business has a mobile-responsive site, they must be sure that the content and links on either the desktop or mobile version of the site are similar, so Google can properly rank the mobile version.
With these changes in search rank, Google suggests that businesses strive to keep the desktop pages of their sites the same as the mobile version. If a mobile site has less content than the desktop one, Google won’t be able to properly rank the sites.
Google states that these new ranking changes will not change the overall rankings drastically. The point of the rankings change is for user experience.
As a business owner, user, and potential customer, experience is extremely important.
Expandable content — like tabs and expandable boxes — won’t affect ranking too much, but, they will be considered more heavily on mobile sites, since expandable content gives the user a better experience.
Google wants website owners to make the user experience a priority when cultivating content and improving their websites for mobile-first viewing.
Why hire an expert for mobile responsiveness?
Getting a site up-to-speed on mobile responsiveness takes time, diligence, and advanced, up-to-date technological and SEO knowledge. Combing through every single page of a desktop and a mobile version of a site and making sure all links and content are the same is a time-consuming process.
With the experts at Sprout Media Lab, you can be sure that your website will be rendered mobile-responsive quickly and efficiently. Contact Sprout Media Lab today online or call us at (800) 617-6975 to speak to our team about getting your site optimized for Google’s new mobile-first ranking system.
