For several years, Google has been increasingly moving toward a mobile-preferred framework. This began with prioritizing websites in search results for mobile users that utilized mobile responsive designs, but as of late, the preferences have shifted from recommended for some to mandatory for all.

As of March, Google now utilizes mobile-first indexing for all platforms. This means that every website will be analyzed and indexed by Google based on its mobile version of the website or page in question. For websites still not equipped with mobile responsive designs, this is a huge problem.

As such, let’s look at what you can do to ensure your website is complaint with Google’s basic tenets of mobile-first indexing.

Responsive Design

The underlying key to being complaint with mobile-first indexing is to have a responsive web design. Regardless of whether somebody is accessing your website via desktop or mobile device, your pages should automatically adjust to best fit the resolution, screen size and functionality of each device. Responsive web design ensures this and is the entire point of mobile-first indexing.

Other elements to consider in responsive design include menus and navigation, videos, pop-ups and scripts that may be pinging users in the background.

Focus on Load Times

Given mobile-first indexing has been adopted due to the majority of Google’s traffic coming from mobile devices, there are other considerations that must be made to ensure broader compliance. One such area is page load times. Since many are accessing content from on-the-go or otherwise via relatively limited internet connections, pages must load quickly in order to have any chance at ranking well.

Inspecting variables such as PageSpeed and Search Console for information surrounding page performance will help you uncover whether your website needs a boost in terms of speed. Generally speaking, the goal is for each page to load in 2 seconds or less.

Synchronize Content

Your content is the lifeblood of your brand. Without consistent messaging and content structure, your website isn’t likely to be successful in the long-term. However, it is also important to know that differences in content between desktop and mobile versions of your page can produce problems for your ranking potential in search.

By pinging users text with one version of a page and video with another, Google is likely to perceive your page(s) as being inferior for the new mobile-first future. In order to ensure that you’re not falling into the trap, avoid customizing content offerings on each page for each subset of your audience. Instead, streamline your efforts and ensure that each page’s content is identical regardless of whether the user is on desktop or mobile.

Check Google Search Console

When in doubt, Google Search Console is your friend. Here, you’ll be able to find any errors or problems Google has with your pages, giving you an idea of where improvements needs to be made and how to do so.

Google Search Console also offers a variety of specific recommendations for mobile-first indexing and design. This makes it simple to fix any glaring errors and avoid being penalized.

Mobile-first indexing is here to stay, and it’s high-time every website adapt to this new reality. By utilizing GSC, synchronizing content across platforms, improving load times and embracing high-quality responsive design, any website can recoup rankings losses and/or ascend the ranks of search as they move onward to bigger and better things.