What Is Mobile-First Indexing?
Mobile-first indexing is an indexing method that uses the mobile version of a website’s content (crawled with the smartphone agent) for indexing and ranking in search engines.
Google uses a mobile-first indexing system when crawling websites on the Internet. Google introduced this indexing method in 2016 and has since moved all websites from desktop-first to mobile-first indexing. All websites registered after July 2019 are mobile-first indexed by default.
Although creating mobile-optimized content isn’t a prerequisite for having a page included in the search results, doing so is advisable.
The term mobile-first index refers to the bot that crawls websites and doesn’t indicate that Google has separate indexes for mobile and desktop page versions.
Ensuring the mobile and desktop content is identical, including metadata on either site version, boosting page speed, and inspecting how the page’s photos or videos are displayed on mobile devices are among the actions that can help Googlebot-Mobile crawl a website for mobile-first indexing.
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The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
