Breaking the Myths Associated with Indexing Mobile Devices First

Since the beginning of Google’s experiment with first indexing mobile devices in 2016, there has been a free flow of tons of information.

Google provided snippets and the latest updates regarding best practices and how to prepare well. The changelog offered by Google regarding the first mobile indexing can be better understood here:

• November 2016 — Initial attempts to experiment with making the index first on mobile devices.
• December 2017 — Site assessment based on readiness and implementation of mobile-first indexing for sites that appear ready to go.
• March 2018 — Expanding the horizon of mobile device indexing first.
• December 2018 — Site owner is notified via search control that a change is being made to mobile indexing first.
• May 2019 — Mobile indexing enabled by default for all new websites.

The updates have become part of Google’s algorithm. There is always something new in store. Knowing and understanding everything we already know about indexing mobile devices first, here are some of the common problems related to indexing mobile devices first:

Know More:- Joomla! Extensions the Best Ecommerce Extensions Joomla Can Offer

Mobile Device Tracking Issues — When Google crawls with Googlebot, things are likely to go wrong. For example, your request might be treated differently on the server depending on the user agent.

There may be other things that can go wrong when you make a request to the mobile pages. In case something goes wrong, there will be no information that Google can retrieve from the page. This means that Google will not be intimidated to show the pages in the search result due to the lack of signal.

Page content issues — Content issues are also a problem. This is usually the case when the website has a separate mobile version that offers different content in addition to the desktop version. In such a case, Google does not receive enough information and cannot determine the relevance of the page.

This can definitely affect the ranking of the site in the search result. Site owners can have major problems with a button as simple as “See more” in the mobile version of content.

This should be avoided at all costs, as the Googlebot does not interact with the elements on the page, so what is visible would be the only trackable text. Structured data that is similar to the content on the website version is a definite winner.

Knowing the shortcomings of mobile device indexing first, it is important that you understand the ways to avoid these problems. Here are a few things to check to help ensure Google has no problems crawling mobile pages:

• “Don’t allow” in robots.txt blocks Googlebot crawling. Make sure to change the settings.
• Noindex meta tags should not be used.
• Allow Googlebot to crawl CSS for mobile devices.
• Let the Googlebot crawl the internal links.
• The site owner should also verify the traceability of the server. A server might not be able to handle mobile crawls as efficiently as desktop crawls.

Search engine optimization, dynamic website, along with expert social media marketing are the best ways to make a name for your brand. If you are a budding entrepreneur looking for ways to improve your brand or you are a professional with years of experience, finding ways to create a fresh new brand image for your existing business, Clicks Bazaar, a digital marketing company UAE, can help you on this journey. Contact us to learn more about our services.