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Google Algorithm

Google Update: Official Announcement of Mobile-First Indexing

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Google has been experimenting with their mobile-first indexing for the past year and a half, and they’ve finally made the announcement that they have officially begun migrating websites over to that method, that comply with current best practices. Again, they will ONLY migrate sites which comply with the rules. For example, sites which use responsive web design are well suited for mobile-first.

What is mobile-first indexing?

To provide the best user experience to Google users, the Google spiders or bots will prefer to crawl and recognize mobile versions of pages. More people search using their phones now, so this is the best way to provide the best pages to them. This is not a separate index, it is just a crawl-mobile-pages-first rule for the regular existing index, which was previously crawling desktop versions of pages first.

What does this mean for your website?

You will be notified of your website’s mobile-first indexing being enabled through your Search Console account and you’ll notice a higher crawl rate from the Smartphone Googlebot. If mobile pages are not available, Google will still crawl your website, it just won’t be the ideal and it will affect your ranking within mobile search results, as it has been doing since 2015.

So, the main purpose of this change is not about ranking, but rather a change in the collection of content.

In July 2018, if your site is comparatively slow to load, you are likely to notice a negative affect in rankings for both desktop and mobile searches.

An extra reminder at the end of the announcement restates that ranking is determined by many factors, so while page speed and mobile-friendliness are important, IF the other signals for a particular search determine your content is the most relevant to show the user, it will show.

See the official announcement

Google News: Confirmation of Core Algorithm Update

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What has been suspected for some time now, with lots chatter across the web, website managers complaining about their sites’ very sudden and dramatic drop in Google search results, Google has released an official statement confirming various updates.

Here’s what they said:

Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year.

As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.

There’s no “fix” for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages.

As K-Kom always says, content is the best way to get your website rankings to improve over time. Stated by Google, if your website was one which dropped in the rankings, it’s not because your site is “bad”. It just means others previously ranking under you are now being rewarded properly, so perhaps you now have a more accurate sense of who your competition really is.

What is a “broad core algorithm update”?

Google releases one to two small updates every day, some are noticeable while most are not, and these are generally not announced. The broad core updates only happen a few times per year and are thus much more significant. In the past, these have seemingly been for targeting low-quality results so the “cream” could more easily float to the top.

This update, however, was specifically stated to give good sites that were not previously recognized, some ranking juice. We need to keep in mind, Google’s main goal is to present its users with the best possible answers to their search questions, so each algorithm update is likely with that end goal in mind.

The areas most relevant to SEO right now are the goals of understanding user intent and understanding content. As Google becomes better at understanding these things, your business better is right along with them, giving your customers exactly what they’re looking for on your website.

So while SEO has often been about putting the best-searched terms into your website, now it seems to be shifted into solving real problems your site visitors want solved. If you can make this shift, you’ll be on your way to great rankings.

If you want to learn about the nitty-gritty, here is a research paper done by Google about query expansion.

Concerned about your website ranking? Contact us today to see what can be done to help you rank above your competition and get back in the digital game!

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