Earlier this year, Google announced that they were officially rolling out the Mobile-First search index. Meaning, overall, that the mobile version of your website will take precedent in Google’s algorithms over the desktop version. While it’s now officially on the record as “started”, in reality, Google has been teasing this feature for some time. Being the canary-in-the-coal-mine, we’ve been writing about it almost just as long! Check out a few of our historical blogs to see how the concept of Mobile-First Indexing has evolved over the past few years:

Google’s Mobile-First Index is Live (Sorta) – Nov 8, 2017
Google is Changing…Again!? – March 15, 2017
Responsive Websites: What’s the Big Deal? – Dec 7, 2016
The Mobile Web: Where We’re Going – Jan 5, 2016
Mobilegeddon: The Results – June 1, 2015
Google Says Your Website Must Be Mobile-Friendly ASAP – April 10, 2015
 

The roll-out happened, more or less, exactly was we would have anticipated. Fortunately, we saw the future through the tea-leaves and moved to a mobile-responsive website design as early as 2014.

Knowing that Google designs it’s ranking algorithms around their user-behavior during searches, this move is a no-brainer when you consider that the overwhelming searches are now happening on mobiles and tablets. The question then begs itself: what will be the impact to web design and SEO practices moving forward?

We can expect a few things moving forward:

• Ranking signals will continue to favor websites that are responsive to all devices instead of just desktops, obviously.
• Design-trends will shift to favor design concepts that make the mobile version of your page more accessible, and easy to use on small screens.
• The mobile first-index algorithm and rankings will certainly be as tumultuous as the original desktop version was in its infancy stage — so expect radical changes, often!

We know, we know, “expect radical changes” isn’t the most exciting thing to hear when learning about a Google update, but rest assured, this is business-as-usual when it comes to dealing with Google search algorithms. Our “secret weapon” in this regard happens to be one of our core marketing principles, which is to build our programs around taking care of the visitor FIRST. Regardless of odd little tests that Google may perform, we know at the end of the day their priority is the searcher, so by making them our priority as well (by studying their behavior, trends, desires, etc.), we consistently are able to stay steps ahead of any major Google change, on mobile or otherwise.

In summation: while these changes are indeed substantial, the websites that are built with their customer/visitor in-mind FIRST over search engine bots will weather this storm just fine, and will continue to benefit from the early-adopted advantage.

Are you an automotive repair shop owner who isn’t sure if their website is up to par for the new mobile-first indexing roll out? Contact us today and get your websites caught up on the latest digital marketing and business practices!