Mobile-First Indexing Is No Longer Just Buzz

Almost every time we work with a new partner we get the same question (and rightfully so), “will my website be mobile friendly?” There’s been a lot of buzz around the importance of mobile for a while now and everyone is right to make sure that their digital efforts are going to be up to par.

This pressure to optimize for a mobile first experience is nothing new for our tribe. However, it is important that we help you understand what mobile-first advances have been made and what this can mean for your digital efforts. Hold onto your seats ladies and gents, the mobile-first internet is officially here.

Google and Mobile Indexing

Google, the king of secrets, has admitted that it will use the mobile version of your site for indexing over your desktop version. Google will only crawl your desktop version if it can’t get the information it needs from the mobile version. This deliberate preference for mobile-first demands a stellar mobile-friendly site and digital strategy.

Digital Strategies for Mobile First Indexing

To be prepared to rock this mobile-first shift, there are several things to be aware of. First, all of your digital content needs to be as high quality on mobile as it is on desktop. Digital content can be anything from website copy, images, videos or even animations. Mobile page load speed, not that there was ever a time it didn’t matter, is crucial now. Slow load times can result in lower SEO rankings. Mobile metadata, the snippets of copy that helps Google organize your site and searchers choose your content, needs be more concise with all keywords towards the beginning. Smaller screen sizes could potentially cut off what on desktop displays perfectly. The list could go on and on, but as long as you show preferential treatment to mobile-friendly options you should be fine.

Tribu is Mobile First

Thankfully, Tribu does not build a desktop version of a website and then a separate mobile version like some. Rather, we develop websites that are responsive. This basically means your website will be smart enough to realize what device it’s being visited on and able to make adjustments to be its best self for the situation. When designed and managed by Tribu, each piece of your website will be optimized to provide a very enjoyable user experience that event the mobile biased Google will appreciate.

Feeling unsure that you’re ready to take on the mobile-first internet?

Let us help you, we love a good challenge from Google!