Mobile searches will soon outpace desktop searches... Oh, wait it isn’t 2010!

Now that mobile search volume has surpassed desktop search volume, it is only logical that Google would start to use mobile versions of their sites for indexing. Before we dig into what this change actually means, let’s touch on a few of these key terms:What is Crawling?Crawling is where Google (or another search engine) visits your website and pages on your site. Google’s crawler goal is to “add” any new page or site to its list of known pages.What is Indexing?As Google crawls your site, information is collected about the content of your site. This information is then “indexed” by Google, which allows your site to show up in Google Search. The information gathered by indexing aids Google in choosing which results to serve to search queries.So What is this about Mobile Indexing?In March of this year (2018), Google announced they have started migrating sites to mobile-first indexing. This change means that Google will use the mobile version of a website for indexing and ranking (as seen in the message below).

What does this Mean? Google has said this change is about “how they gather content, not about how content is ranked”. While this may be reassuring for any anti-mobile rebels, Google has also made changes so that:

• Content that is slow-loading on mobile sites may perform worse (lower organic ranking) in mobile searches
• Sites with mobile-friendly content can perform better for users searching on mobile

So while change may not drastically impact any non-mobile optimized sites, Google is clearly making a push that all sites (and content) be as accessible and quick for searchers on a mobile device as it should be for desktop.

• This point has been emphasized numerous times, but if your sites (or pages) are not optimized for a mobile experience - please make the necessary updates to make your site mobile friendly. Internally, we have seen similar trends that are being reported - for our clients, the majority of their traffic is from mobile devices. Don’t let over half of your visitors have a poor experience!

Hopefully, you now have a little better understanding on how search engines collect website information and ultimately how this mobile-first indexing will impact your website moving forward. If you have any questions or would like to discuss your online strategy, please contact us today!