Mobile First Indexing

Years ago Google ranked websites based on their desktop versions. As phones overtook desktops for search traffic, Google flipped its approach. Today, when Google decides where to rank a page, it almost always looks at the mobile version of the page first. The desktop version is treated as secondary.

For most Michigan small businesses, this is not a surprise. More than two thirds of the searches that drive calls and walk-ins already happen on a phone. The shift simply codifies what was already happening.

If your site was built more than five or six years ago and never properly redone, there is a real chance it has a different content set on mobile than on desktop. Sometimes whole sections are hidden on mobile to save space. Sometimes a separate m-dot mobile site exists that is years out of date.

Both situations are ranking problems. Anything Google sees on mobile but not desktop, or hidden behind accordions, gets less weight. Anything missing from mobile is functionally missing from Google.

A modern site built for mobile-first indexing follows a small set of rules. It is not complicated, just consistent.

Google Search Console reports on mobile usability issues for any site you have verified. PageSpeed Insights, also free, scores the mobile load speed and lists the heaviest assets. A few minutes in those two tools is enough to know whether mobile-first indexing is helping you or quietly hurting you.