SEO: Google’s 2021 Movement to Mobile First
It used to be that if anyone wanted to search anything, then they would load up their desktop or laptop and browse the web on one of those devices. However, the rise of the smartphone has changed this practice, as people become more and more reliant on the phone to carry out searches every day. The convenience of using the phone to browse the web is obvious – it is infinitely more convenient as people do not need to sit in one place to access the web. With this change in searching, Google has also updated its system to accommodate this new way of web browsing.
Research shows that in 2020, around 2.87 billion people used smartphones. When looking at this kind of data, it is clear to see why Google might have wanted to change its system. The company saw how many people used smartphones and correctly saw the need for the mobile experience to be as optimised as possible in order to get useful search results that are relevant to what people are searching for. This is why in 2015, Google announced that significant changes would be coming?to its infamous algorithm to improve the experience that mobile users get.
After this update, the effect it had on websites were clear: sites that were mobile-friendly ranked higher than sites that did not optimise for mobile users. This did not affect users who were searching on browsers that were not on a mobile device, so some may not have seen the need to update their sites just yet. However, as already seen, a staggering amount of people use their smartphones to browse, so those businesses that have not yet updated their website to make it more mobile-friendly are just shooting themselves in the foot.
Fast forward a few years, and Google is again now focusing on the experience that mobile users receive. This year, Google released a mobile index that is unlike anything it has released before in terms of prioritising the mobile content on websites. Before, websites would be ranked according to their mobile-friendly features when people searched from a mobile, but now,?websites will be ranked irrespective of what device is used to search from.
The main thing that everyone who owns a website should take from this is that it is more important than ever to have an optimised site that is useful for mobile users. This mobile-first approach means that websites will rank higher when they consider the user experience of mobile users more than that of desktop or laptop users, and while this is not to say that these users should not be focused on, it seems that they are of less priority than mobile users.
This does make sense though. Countless research both from Google and other independent researchers have revealed that in 2021,?the most frequent form of web searching is completed from a smartphone. Gone are the days of smartphones being a luxury, they are now a necessity that most people in developed countries will own. Therefore, the need for an algorithm that prioritises mobile searches over web searches is one that was expected and perhaps even one that was needed.
This change will catch out those who have not had the foresight or even common sense to see that the way in which people are searching is changing. From as far back as 2015, it should have been obvious to most that mobile searching was eventually going to be the dominant form of browsing in the world, and this update is only going to serve to bring that prediction forward.?
Mobile-First Indexing will affect people from all walks of life who own a website. Whether you are the head of marketing in charge of running the company website or an individual who simply runs a small blog, the index is not something that can be opted out of. It should be clear that those who own websites will need to optimise them for mobiles if they do not want to get left behind in this new era of browsing.