First Index is Google’s system for crawling and indexing new web pages . Officially launched in March 2018 and previously announced in 2016, this implementation process reached completion on October 31, 2023.
Google’s choice to prioritize content is based on the fact that most users access the Internet via devices. This “revolution” of the First Index has significant implications for websites: it becomes, in fact, of primary importance to adapt content and web pages to browsing, in line with global Internet usage trends.
FOLLOW US ON
Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Newsletter
So let’s try to understand in depth how the first index works and what errors are important to avoid to have excellent smartphone usability.
Why is it important to have a -first approach?
Index
Why is it important to have a -first approach?
How a search engine works
Why did Google change index?
1. Create a -friendly site Maximize Your Marketing Campaign With Sabya CW Leads Our extensive Bulgaria phone number bulgaria phone number list provides you with verified contacts to effectively reach your target audience. Increase your promotion and increase your conversion rate by connecting directly with potential customers. Don’t miss out on valuable opportunities—get your Bulgaria phone number list today and improve your digital marketing strategy2. Make sure your content is the same on desktop and devices
3. Check the visual content
4. Enter the same metadata in both versions of the site
first indexing, Google’s advice to avoid mistakes
first index and friendly: what’s the difference?
What if I don’t have a -friendly site?
According to Google, the version of a website’s content is the main evaluation factor for indexing its pages, interpreting structured data and presenting snippets of these resources in search engine results (SERP).
According to GWI data , in fact, in 2023, 91% of users accessed the Internet through their smartphone . In 2016, Internet use surpassed desktop use, marking a significant change in online behavior. This shift in trend was further confirmed ten years ago, when mobile phone sales began to surpass PC sales.
Finally, during the pandemic, it has become even more evident that having mobile-friendly websites is essential for both consumers and businesses.
How a search engine works
In this digital context so oriented towards devices like the smartphone, positioning a site in a mobile first logic therefore becomes the first action to invest in to make you findable by users and potential new customers. But how does a search engine like Google actually work?
To better understand the purpose of the mobile index we need to delve into some more technical explanations. In essence, the functioning of search engines is divided into three main phases :
crawling : the first step concerns the analysis of web pages through crawlers or spiders , software that automates the process of acquiring text copies of documents found on a page. This process allows for the creation of an index that subsequently facilitates the search and display of such content;
storage and cataloging : the analyzed pages are entered into the search engine’s database. The text of these pages is stored and later analyzed to provide answers to user searches. Search engines also offer the cache function , a copy of the texts of each page archived;
response to queries : when the but I found this training some time ago user performs a search, he receives a list of results . The relevance of a web page depends on the presence of the searched keyword and various other factors such as the number of links received, the position of the keywords on the page and the number of sites that link to that page.
In addition to organic results, search engines also provide sponsored results, which are web pages of companies that pay to appear among the first results for certain keywords.
Why did Google change index?
As we have seen so far, searches performed via smartphones are constantly increasing. However, many websites do not offer the same content on their mobile versions that are available on the desktop version, often due to space limitations or to reduce loading times. This discrepancy can lead to situations where some sites appear in mobile search results despite not containing the information actually searched for by the user.
With the move from Desktop to Mobile search index, Google is committed to ensuring that a site is only ranked in mobile search phone number sa results if it actually contains the requested information . This change is intended to improve the relevance and accuracy of search results on mobile devices.
Mobile and Mobile-First Site Indexing: Best Practices
Let’s see together some SEO tips to have a website optimized for the Mobile First Index.
Do you want to stay updated on news related to SEO and search engine positioning ?
I have read and accept the privacy policy
1. Create a mobile-friendly site
You have three options to develop a mobile-friendly website, let’s look at them together.
Responsive design : This is the solution recommended by Google, because it represents the simplest approach to implement and maintain. In practice, the same HTML code and the same URL are used for all devices (desktop, tablet, mobile devices, non-visual browsers). The peculiarity of this method is that the code automatically adapts to display the content appropriately depending on the size of the device’s screen.
Dynamic Serving : In this configuration, you use the same URL for all devices, but you vary the HTML in response to the type of device making the request. This is achieved by detecting the device type (user-agent sniffing) and using the “Vary: user-agent” HTTP response header.
You then serve a different version of the HTML based on the device.
Separate URLs : This approach instead involves using different HTML codes for each type of device, hosted on separate URLs. Here too, the HTTP headers “user-agent” and “Vary” are used to identify the user’s device and redirect them to the most appropriate version of the site.
It is important to note that the Google guidelines and recommendations that follow apply specifically to dynamic publishing and separate URL configurations: in the case of responsive design, in fact, the content and metadata remain identical on the mobile and desktop versions of the pages.
2. Make sure your content is the same on desktop and mobile devices
The second recommendation focuses on a practical aspect: even if you have similar content, differences in the Document Object Model (DOM) or design between the desktop and mobile versions of a page can affect how Google interprets that content. However, maintaining the same content on the desktop and mobile versions of your site is crucial to ensure that both can rank well for the same keywords.
