What is Mobile First Site Indexing in Search ?
Why Your Business’ Website Has a Sudden Need for Speed
Google’s “Mobile First” indexing is upon us.
In late 2017, Google began moving a selection of “ready” sites to its mobile index. This means business websites have a sudden and real need for mobile-friendly speed. Ignoring Google's change can soon cost your company, potential customers, as Google gives priority search engine placement to more responsive, faster-loading websites.
Google: “Most Sites Lose Half their Visitors While Loading”
Change
In 2017, when a visitor entered a search term that matched your company’s business products, services or website, she would see very similar search results if she was at her laptop, tablet or other smart devices. With "Mobile First," the mobile version of your website becomes the starting point for what Google includes in their search results and the baseline for how they determine if and where your business will appear on a search page.
Mid-2018 webmasters using Google Analytics began seeing approval notices or warning notices. Approval meant that Google would show the site more frequently on mobile devices than site owners whose site had not earned its "mobile friendly" designation. Other site owners would see warnings "Your site does not meet usability guidelines."
Mid-2019 the percent of mobile searches have skyrocketed since 2017. Google's research says that mobile visitors are less patient than laptop visitors and are also less likely to buy something from you during that visit. Google researchers found that retail sites in USA tend to load in over six seconds and the mobile visitor tends to go elsewhere in less than three seconds.
