Is your website ready for the Google ranking change?
Google is about to change how websites are ranked on their search engine. Act today, to ensure that your website does not drop on Google.
What is changing?
Later this year Google will be implementing mobile-first indexing. This means that your google listing will be based on the mobile version of your website only, not the desk top version as it used to be. This listing will also be the same that is shown to desk top users. Therefore, it is more important than ever that you make sure you have a responsive mobile site in place rather than just relying on the desktop version.
What is Mobile Indexing?
Google bots will crawl through the pages on your website. Once they have gone through your site they will rank the pages in their search results. The better the optimization on your website the higher it will rank on the Google Search results. For businesses it is crucial that you are as high as possible in this listing, so your website is acknowledged.
Mobile Indexing is the same process as this, the fundamental difference is that the Google’s bots will now search through the pages of your mobile website. If your mobile site is slow or not responsive, then your website will drop down on the Google listing.
Why are they doing this?
Google are changing their ranking process as the use of mobile devices has grown significantly over the last few years. Most users access websites through their mobile device rather than via a desktop version. Look at your own habits, you will probably find that you are the same. The use of mobile devices makes it so much easier to find the information you need when you need it. This change in use has meant that Google has had to change the way they work as well.
What is a responsive site?
For a website to be responsive it needs to be able to change to fit the screen size that it is being displayed on. This could be a tablet, phone or desktop. It is vital that there is no need to scroll and the images display correctly. The site will know what it is being viewed on adjust accordingly. A responsive site is very valuable as it means that the same content is shown everywhere, and you only have one website to update. Responsive sites are also quick to load as the user is not being redirected to a mobile version of the desktop site.
What do you need to do?
To ensure your website does not drop when this change comes into place, there are several things that you need to do:
- Ensure that you have responsive mobile website in place. This will ensure that the Google bots are able to easily navigate the site and it will mean that the site will be optimised.
- If your site isn’t responsive, you will need to ensure that the mobile version has the same valuable content as the desktop version of the site.
- Work on the SEO of your site by including titles, links to site maps, meta descriptions, structure data mark up and social metadata.
- Add key words (searchable terms) throughout your site. These keywords need to cover the type of information you see your users looking for.
- Your mobile site needs to be quick to load. The quicker it is to load the more user friendly your site will be, and the more optimized Google will see it as being.
If you put the above in place, you will be well on your way to being ready for Google’s changes.
