Have you got an email from Google telling you that your site is now being indexed for mobile first ?
This means that google is now going to server the mobile version of your site first on mobile search. Most sites are responsive so this makes little difference to what has been happening before.
If you are getting this email then it means that google considers your site to be mobile ready enough for it to be included in the mobile first index. This is a good thing. Google is rolling this out slowly so we are only seeing these messages in Ireland about 8 weeks after google started these notifications.
If you are running a separate mobile site like an m.domain.com then you have already been looking after your mobile experience.
Be careful that the important information on your site is viewable in mobile because on some CMS’s like joomla and wordpress you can turn on elements for mobile and desktop. Simply check your site on your phone if you are not sure.
So why are Google doing Mobile first indexing ?
Google considers the primary search device to be mobile. Google is simply changing the preference of how it is adding content to the index. So if content is hidden on mobile it is not going to make it to the mobile index. Google is still maintaining a desktop search index too, but we think this will be discontinued when there is a volume of sites successfully on mobile indexing.
What if my site is not mobile friendly ?
Well then its time to make it so. Google have been talking about this for 4 years so its not new. If you have recently got a new website and its not mobile friendly, get a refund 😉 Seriously consider switching supplier unless you asked for it not to be mobile.
What if my rankings drop immediately after Google Mobile First Indexing ?
The reason for this maybe that google’s mobile view of your site does not expose all the links and menus that the desktop version does. Before you got this notice google indexed your site on the desktop view. Alot of site owners provided a trimmed down version of their site and menus for mobile devices. You can still do this but you need to make sure there is a menu on the mobile version that is the same as the desktop menu. Maybe place this in the footer links so as not to upset the mobile header view. We would recommend if you are making your desktop menu visible on the mobile view that you also place a prominent search box so as to save your visitors from traversing menus to get to your content.
Check if your site is mobile enough for google.
Some further reading :
https://moz.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo
Search Engineland Mobile indexing guide by Barry Adams