10 Steps To Boost Your Site’s Crawlability And Indexability Ep. 557
If search engines can’t find your web pages, all the optimization in the world will do no good. Boost your site’s crawl ability and indexability to…
Technical SEO
Mobile-First Indexing, Best Practices with Chris Burres and Matthew Bertram #437
Mobile-first indexing means Google now crawls and ranks your mobile site, so your mobile content, metadata, structured data, and canonical tags must match your desktop version to protect rankings.
Key takeaways
- Google now uses only one index, based on the mobile version of your site, not the desktop version.
- Mobile and desktop versions must have the same content, images, alt attributes, videos, structured data, and metadata.
- Sites using separate m-dot URLs or dynamic serving face the highest risk and need immediate content parity checks.
- Canonical tags on desktop pages should point to the mobile version now that mobile-first indexing is active.
- Verify both versions of your site in Search Console and ensure robots.txt and sitemaps cover both versions.
Google primarily crawls and indexes pages with their smartphone agent, right? So that's basically saying that it's mobile-first index.
About this episode
Mobile-First Indexing, Best PracticesMobile-first indexing means Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page's content when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user's query. Join Matt and Chris for another thrilling episode of the Best SEO Podcast.Presented by BestSEOPodcast.com, Having 1st aired in…
Questions this episode answers
What is mobile-first indexing and how does it affect my website rankings?
Mobile-first indexing means Google now crawls and ranks your site based on the mobile version rather than the desktop version. If your mobile site has less content, missing metadata, or no structured data compared to your desktop, your rankings will drop when Google switches your site over.
Do I need two separate indexes for desktop and mobile?
No. Google continues to use only one index. It has switched from indexing the desktop version to indexing the mobile version. Sites with separate desktop and mobile URLs, such as m-dot subdomains, are most at risk if the two versions differ in content.
What should I check on my site to prepare for mobile-first indexing?
Check that your mobile site has the same primary content, images, alt attributes, videos, structured data, and metadata as your desktop version. Also verify both site versions in Search Console, review canonical tags, hreflang links, robots.txt files, and sitemaps for both versions.
What is the data highlighter in Google Search Console and why does it matter for mobile-first indexing?
The data highlighter is a Search Console tool that lets you tag pieces of data on your pages, such as event dates, times, costs, and locations, so Google understands that information as structured data. It is an alternative to adding schema code directly and should be applied to both mobile and desktop versions.
In their words
If you lose that content, you will lose your rankings, bottom line.
Matt Bertram
We evaluate each site individually on its readiness for mobile-first indexing based on the best practices and transition the site when the site is ready.
Chris Burres
Terms defined in this episode
- Mobile-first indexing
- Google's approach of crawling and indexing pages using a smartphone agent rather than a desktop agent, meaning the mobile version of a site determines search rankings.
- Canonical tag
- An HTML element that points to the originator of content. With mobile-first indexing, desktop pages should use a canonical tag pointing to the mobile version so the mobile URL is treated as the original source.
- Data highlighter
- A Google Search Console tool that lets site owners tag pieces of page content, such as event dates, times, costs, and locations, to communicate structured data to Google without writing schema code.
- Responsive web design
- A design approach where page content adjusts based on the size of the device being used, covering mobile, tablet, and desktop screen sizes within a single URL.
Full transcript is being added.
This episode answers
Matthew Bertram
AI keynote speaker · Owner & CEO, EWR Digital · President, ModalPoint
Matthew Bertram is an AI keynote speaker, creator of DIG™ (Digital Information Governance), and owner and CEO of EWR Digital. He helps energy and industrial leaders win visibility in AI search (GEO and AEO), is President of ModalPoint and CMO of the Oil & Gas Global Network, hosts The Best SEO Podcast, and has authored eight books including LLM Visibility. More about Matthew Bertram.
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