Google Mobile-First Indexing Update – you must read this!

Last year, on October 31, 2023, Google announced its Mobile-First Indexing (MFI) update was complete. 

We always knew this would happen, and it finally did. Indeed, it is a relief for many as we now have a more decisive direction regarding Google’s ranking preference. In a nutshell, this means that Google Search will now primarily use the mobile version of your website for crawling, indexing, and ranking. You better have your website’s mobile version look as good as possible, or this will hamper rankings.

Google has been looking to initiate mobile-first indexing for many years, so this is not a real surprise, as we have been expecting this for well over five years.

Here’s an outline of what MFI means for your business – take note, as this is super-important.

Why is Mobile-First Indexing important?

MFI is essential because more and more people are using their mobile devices to access the web. According to Statista, In Australia, mobile devices made up about 55 per cent of all internet traffic in February 2022. I know it’s 2024, but you can see that this trend will only continue to grow as more and more people search online for products and services.

How Does Mobile-First Indexing Affect My Business?

It means you must ensure your website is mobile-friendly and the user experience is as good as it can be on mobile. Many businesses neglect how their website looks on a mobile phone, so now is the time they have to sit up and take notice, or rankings will suffer.

Quick MFI health checks to help improve rankings:

• Ensure your website is responsive, looks good, and functions well on all devices. If it’s not responsive or mobile-friendly, I suggest you reach out to a web agency to fix this issue immediately.
• Make sure your fonts and all call-to-action buttons on the mobile are large enough and easy to tap on a mobile device.
• Avoid overloading your mobile pages with too much content, lengthy pages, long scrolls and large images.
• Make sure your website loads quickly on mobile devices. Get your SEO agency to make sure your site loads in less than a second and, if you can, even faster.

Next Steps?

If your website’s mobile version needs improvement and it’s letting you down through low click-through rates and poor conversions, we can quickly fix the issue. Plus, as we now know, if your mobile website is not functioning correctly, this will hurt your Google rankings, so once we get involved, you can expect rankings to improve significantly. Contact us here at SEO Sydney Experts.