The folks at Google are known for keeping the public on their toes, and they do an impressive job at changing their algorithm a few times per year. Although many of these are minor changes largely unnoticed by the general public, it appears that each year or so, the giant search engine alters the rules of optimization for search engines more extensively.
There have been many modifications to how Google recommends businesses look at search engine marketing. Still, in recent years, changes have been heavily weighted towards appealing to mobile users. While the discussions have been running for some time, everything was brought to the forefront in 2012 when Google decided that mobile website speed could impact a website’s ability to be ranked on its search engine.
Many businesses have a crucial question “Is mobile responsiveness officially a ranking factor?”. Although Google prefers to maintain silence regarding its ranking factors, let’s look at the information we have on the responsiveness of mobile devices and search engine optimization.
What Is All the Fuss About Responsive Design?
You know the distinct difference between desktop and mobile versions regarding web design. What’s all the talk about responsive design? And how does it differ from mobile optimized? Responsive design is a website design that automatically adjusts to the screen and device size the user is using. For instance, responsive design allows users to browse our desktop-friendly website at one time and then a mobile version later while preserving the same design and experience for the user.
Mobile responsiveness is vital as more than 50 percent of all global internet traffic is coming via mobile devices throughout the year, an increase that has increased rapidly since. It’s evident that we’re moving towards a point where mobile devices will generate the majority of internet traffic, and it’s crucial to adjust to this trend today rather than trying to catch ahead with the next generation.
However, with only half of the traffic generated by mobile devices, what happens to your 40 to 40 percent? Most of your target audience tries to reach you through their desktops, and most users are switching between. Nowadays, smart SEM is creating a method to connect with everyone, no matter the location from which they’re coming.
So, What Does Google Think?
Google likes rewarding sites that have invested in mobile-optimized web development. Recent algorithmic modifications have been made to reward businesses with mobile websites, specifically those that have redesigned their websites to meet the requirements of the modern user.
However, even though Google will crawl mobile sites first and reward sites that load fast, They’ve attempted to say what kind of mobile site the site isn’t essential. Technically, there’s no way to determine whether mobile responsiveness is a crucial ranking factor. However, before you go away into the distance of your mobile-friendly website, you need to be aware that responsive design will be Google’s preferred design pattern.
Confused? Frustrated? You don’t need to be. The best thing you can do is comprehend why mobile responsiveness is essential to Google and discover how responsive design makes everything simple.
The Story Behind Mobile First Indexing
It is like living under an abyss not to have had a chance to hear about mobile-first indexing at this stage in the game. The basic idea behind Mobile-first indexing refers to Google’s prioritizing mobile-friendly sites. This means that Google will first crawl to index and crawl a site’s mobile-friendly version before attempting to perform the same with its desktop counterpart. This doesn’t mean desktop versions aren’t crawled and indexed, but it means that they’re so far back in the ranking that if you’re only running one desktop website, then you could as well say goodbye to the world of visibility and lead generation goodbye.
We can be confident the mobile-first indexing process is an initiative designed to improve UX (UX) to cater to the ever-growing numbers of mobile-based users. Be sure that this isn’t an attempt to penalize companies who are only beginning to gain a position in the digital realm. Instead, point companies towards the direction they must take should they genuinely want to be successful on the internet.
You cannot gain the benefits of mobile-first indexing without a mobile-friendly site. For companies of all sizes, responsiveness to mobile devices when designing websites is vital for SEO, even if it’s not an individual ranking factor.