Optimizing for Mobile First Index

Editor's Notes

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241462/global-mobile-phone-website-traffic-share/As of February 2017, mobile accounts for 65.1 percent of all web traffic in Asia and for 59.5 percent of all web traffic in Africa. 91% of traffic in Singapore
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241462/global-mobile-phone-website-traffic-share/
3. When Googlers talk about interactions, they now say ‘tap’ instead of ‘click’.
4. When users change, Google adapts. They’re moving to a mobile-first index to meet the needs of their users. This isn’t a personal vendetta.
5. Mobile-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. Since the majority of users now access Google via a mobile device, the index will primarily use the mobile version of a page's content going forward. We aren't creating a separate mobile-first index. We continue to use only one index. With mobile-first indexing, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the smartphone agent. We will continue to show the URL that is the most appropriate to users (whether it's a desktop or mobile URL) in Search results. Google Developer’s Documentation for Mobile-First Indexing
6. Make sure the the content you want to rank stays the same or moves up the pageGary Illyes Pubcon - https://twitter.com/Marie_Haynes/status/966321720259940353
7. https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1007235830543519744
8. Avoid common mistakes that frustrate mobile visitors. Mobile pages that provide a poor searcher experience can be demoted in rankings or displayed with a warning in mobile search results. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/06/changes-in-rankings-of-smartphone_11.html
9. Main Content is any part of the page that directly helps the page achieve its purpose. Supplementary Content contributes to a good user experience on the page, but does not directly help the page achieve its purpose. Webmasters directly control the MC of the page (except for user-generated content). MC can be text, images, videos, page features (e.g., calculators, games), or it can be user-generated content such as videos, reviews, articles, etc. that users have added or uploaded to the page. Note that tabs on some pages lead to even more information (e.g., customer reviews) and can sometimes be considered part of the MC of the page. The MC also includes the title at the top of the page (example). Descriptive MC titles allow users to make informed decisions about what pages to visit. Helpful titles summarize the MC on the page. 2.4.1 Identifying the Main Content (MC) SC is controlled by webmasters and is an important part of the user experience. One common type of SC is navigation links that allow users to visit other parts of the website. Note that in some cases, content behind tabs may be considered part of the SC of the page. 2.4.2 Identifying the Supplementary Content (SC)
10. Per Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes, content that is most directly related to the user’s primary intent for visiting a page (Main Content) should be prioritized to load before related resources (Supplementary Content). https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en//insidesearch/howsearchworks/assets/GG/PQ.2.2.4all.jpg
11. Above the fold is your most valuable real estate. Allot as much as possible for main content.
12. This is main content.
13. More main content. It’s not in our highest value real estate, but it’s close.
14. Your mobile site should contain the same content as your desktop site.
15. Go in every nook and cranny. If your mobile site has less content than your desktop site, you should consider updating your mobile site so that its primary content is equivalent with your desktop site. This includes text, images (with alt-attributes), and videos – in the usual crawlable and indexable formats.
16. By their relationship to the user’s intent. For our PDP example, we have two types of user journeys on a single page.
17. It is a way of prioritizing UX elements and the loading of resources (performance) to serve a page that performs well-- especially on mobile devices with 3G connections. The goal is for UX, developers, and SEOs to work together.
18. Check each one of your templates. Don’t take anything for granted. You’re going to have make compromises and clearly define mutual objectives.
19. If your site needs development work to be ready for mobile first index, you’re going to have to come to the table with the business value and KPIs
20. Mobile-first design performance metrics divert from the standard performance metrics. These are focused on mobile experience in accordance with best practices for mobile-first indexing. KPIs for mobile-first design are measured using Lighthouse, the tool recommended by Google for measuring mobile-first index performance. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html
21. KPIs for mobile-first design are measured using Lighthouse, the tool recommended by Google for measuring mobile-first index performance. Lighthouse is an automated tool and a part of Chrome Developer Tools for auditing the quality (performance, accessibility, and more) of web pages
22. Mobile-first design performance metrics divert from the standard performance metrics. These are focused on mobile experience in accordance with best practices for mobile-first indexing. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/01/using-page-speed-in-mobile-search.html
23. Don’t measure success as more pages indexed. Up and down trends are relative to how many pages you want indexed.
24. This one isn’t relative. It it goes down, we all get sad.
25. You’ll see a sudden spike in requests from Smartphone Googlebot when your site is going to mobile-first index. Ensure your servers have enough capacity to a handle potential increase in crawl rate on the mobile version of your site. Site owners will see significantly increased crawl rate from the Smartphone Googlebot. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html Ensure the servers hosting the site have enough capacity to handle potentially increased crawl rate. This doesn't affect sites that use responsive web design and dynamic serving, only sites where the mobile version is on a separate host, such as m.example.com. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/12/getting-your-site-ready-for-mobile.html https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1007235822532341760
26. User agents: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943
27. User agents: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943
28. User agents: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943
29. Per Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Gary Illyes, content that is most directly related to the user’s primary intent for visiting a page (Main Content) should be prioritized to load before related resources (Supplementary Content).
30. You’ll see a sudden spike in requests from Smartphone Googlebot when your site is going to mobile-first index. Ensure your servers have enough capacity to a handle potential increase in crawl rate on the mobile version of your site. Site owners will see significantly increased crawl rate from the Smartphone Googlebot. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/03/rolling-out-mobile-first-indexing.html Ensure the servers hosting the site have enough capacity to handle potentially increased crawl rate. This doesn't affect sites that use responsive web design and dynamic serving, only sites where the mobile version is on a separate host, such as m.example.com. https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/12/getting-your-site-ready-for-mobile.html
31. User agents: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1061943
32. “Click to load” content such as infinite scroll, tap to load more, and tabbed navigation must load with either: Preload (toggle CSS visibility) or Link to unique URLs/pages
33. “Click to load” content such as infinite scroll, tap to load more, and tabbed navigation must load with either: Preload (toggle CSS visibility) or Link to unique URLs/pages