{"id":179336,"date":"2018-04-12T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ntegrait.com\/big-changes-for-google\/"},"modified":"2018-04-12T10:14:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T15:14:00","slug":"big-changes-for-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ntegrait.com\/big-changes-for-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Changes For Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

If You Want to Be First on Google Searches, Be Sure to Employ Best Practices for Mobile-First Indexing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

On March 26th, 2018, Google announced that after over 18 months of testing they will now begin migrating sites that follow best practices for their mobile-first indexing. This means that Google will now use the mobile version of content to index and rank all websites. Before now, they used the desktop version of a webpage\u2019s content to evaluate how relevant it is to users\u2019 Google searches.<\/p>\n

NOTE: You won\u2019t have to change anything if you have a\u00a0responsive site<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0dynamic serving site<\/a>\u00a0where the main content and markup is the same in both. However, if your\u00a0site configuration<\/a>s<\/u>\u00a0are different on your mobile and desktop site, you should make some changes to your site. You can check the structured markup across your desktop and mobile versions by typing their URLs into the\u00a0Structured Data Testing Tool<\/a> and comparing them.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been getting a lot of questions about this, so we\u2019re providing some answers for you below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why is Google doing this? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, most of us search on Google using our mobile devices. Yet, their ranking system is still based on the desktop versions of websites. This creates issues if the mobile pages contain less data than the desktop pages. In this case, the Google algorithms can\u2019t properly evaluate the actual page that\u2019s seen by the mobile device user.<\/p>\n

So, to make their results more accurate, Google started experimenting with their index mobile first initiative. And now that it\u2019s been launched, it will be the primary way Google will search for content, show snippets and rank pages.<\/p>\n

How does this work? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Googlebots<\/a> (or crawlers) search and index web pages. Crawlers are robots<\/a> or spiders<\/a> that automatically locate and read websites by \u201ccrawling\u201d from one link to another.<\/p>\n

Last summer (June 2017) Google advised website owners to switch their m-dot domains to \u201cresponsive\u201d before the Mobile-First Indexing launch. If you didn\u2019t do this, then Google will fully index your m-dot content and URLs. This means that the migration for your site will take longer than it should because Google will have to update the content on your pages.<\/p>\n

If you have separate desktop and mobile content for your website, this means that you have a dynamic-serving<\/a> or separate m-dot site specifically designed for mobile devices.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to have an m-dot site because you can use it to enhance the mobile experience on your site without compromising your desktop or mobile experience.<\/p>\n

Ensure you follow Google\u2019s best practices if you want your sites to rank well now with their mobile-first indexing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Should our mobile content be different than our desktop content?<\/em><\/strong> No. It should be the same. And don\u2019t limit it either. This could cause your ranking to decline. If your mobile site contains less content than your desktop site, it\u2019s time to update it. Plus, be sure you include all of your photos, images, and videos in their original indexable and crawlable formats.<\/p>\n

What about the structured data? Should we include it on both of our mobile and desktop versions?<\/em><\/strong> Yes. <\/strong>The URLs in the structured data on the mobile versions should be updated to the mobile URLs. If you use\u00a0Data Highlighter<\/a>\u00a0for this be sure to check your dashboard regularly for any extraction errors.<\/p>\n

How about the<\/em><\/strong> metadata<\/em><\/a>? Do we need it on both versions?<\/em><\/strong> Definitely. <\/strong>Make sure that titles and meta descriptions are identical across both versions of your site.<\/p>\n

Things that you should verify to meet Google\u2019s new Mobile-First Indexing:<\/strong><\/p>\n