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Google's Mobile-First Index and What it Means For You - Get Fact Up Episode 80
Published Mar 23, 2018
Chris Hogan: Good day all, Chris Hogan and Andrew Groat come to you live from Me Media studio here in Burleigh for episode 80 of 'Get Fact Up'. And today we're talking about...
Andrew Groat: The new mobile update for Google, the Google search.
Chris Hogan: Look out peeps. Are you in for some trouble if you don't get this right?
Andrew Groat: So last year Google rolled out what everyone affectionately named "Mobilegeddon", where it started marking down people's websites, or penalising people's websites that didn't have mobile friendliness. So that's been in effect for probably a year now I'd say. And the way that worked, it would check your website, see if it was mobile friendly. If it wasn't mobile friendly, you would be pushed further down the results. So that's been going for a bit and we've said that before, that you really need to take that seriously, because they're only gonna get more heavy handed with that.
The mobile usage is growing. It's not changing, it's growing exponentially and now we've got like Google voice search, iPhone voice search, Siri voice search ... Sorry Alexa voice search.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: And all of that is only showing mobile results, so it's only going further that way. And now Google have gone a little bit further with that new indexing strategy, and they're about to roll out a new thing called Mobile First Indexing, where they only check the mobile version of your website. Only index the mobile version. If you don't have a mobile version, they don't even look.
Chris Hogan: You will not be on Google's search results, if you don't have a mobile website.
Andrew Groat: So it's only something that they're slowly rolling out now. They're testing it on a couple of websites, but they will be rolling it out, they're 100% confirmed on that. So, that is a problem for people that don't have mobile friendly websites.
Chris Hogan: You're warned. You're warned. And there's still people that don't have mobile websites. Some of them have by their [inaudible 00:02:10] credit a really dodgy version of their desktop version, and said, "This will do." And what's that gonna do for them Andrew?
Andrew Groat: Well that means only that dodgy version will be in the search results now.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: So, if you have a really, really good desktop site, doesn't matter. So the big thing here is, you shouldn't have a separate mobile version of the website. And I've done a bit of research this morning and we've always said responsive web design is the way to go. 100%. So you... To explain that a little bit better. If you have a mobile version of your website, that's when you have ABC.com.au as your desktop website, and then maybe M.ABC.com.au as your mobile only website. That's the only thing that's gonna be indexed now, is the mobile website.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: So if you've got a kind of crappy version of your main website as your mobile site, then kiss the good one goodbye.
Chris Hogan: And responsive websites are the ones that basically resize. So, they should be designed to resize from a desktop view, down to an iPad view, down to different width iPhone ... Sorry, phone widths, mobile phone widths. And it should show the same content.
Andrew Groat: The same information, yeah. It should.
Chris Hogan: And that's great and the reason why people should have done it that way, or should be doing it that way, is because it means that when you update your website, which might be from a laptop computer, most of the time... Or sorry, a desktop computer. Then what you're seeing on your desktop is what you're also gonna see on your mobile. And then it's just a quick check, "yep, displays fine." Done. And the content is exactly the same. So, you haven't had to do it in two places and be all tricky. And yeah, now if you don't have it, you're not gonna show on Google's search results, so.
Andrew Groat: So you have to sort of ask yourself... You may not know if you have a responsive website or you just have a mobile version or something else. But you have to ask yourself, "When I look at my website on the phone, is it a different experience in terms of the content and information to someone on the desktop?" If it is, that's a problem. So Google's only gonna be reading the mobile version. Google is only checking your phone on a mobile, and it's only using that content to put it in the search results. So that could have a huge impact on your SEO. If you have cut down versions of all your text or you have cut down versions of anything. Or you just literally not showing certain pages, they're gone.
Chris Hogan: Crazy.
Andrew Groat: So there's a couple of ways you can check this.
Chris Hogan: That was my next question.
Andrew Groat: So Google has the mobile testing tool, we'll put a link to that down at the bottom. Now one thing about that, it's about to be updated. So when Google releases this update, they're also gonna have an updated version of this mobile friendly test. So you can check that now, and it might say it's okay, there might be a couple of things you need to fix up. As soon as they re-release this indexing update, you can guarantee they'll have a new version of this mobile testing tool. So keep on top of that. But the best way to test, and this may be a little bit over people's heads, and we can put some links in to get this setup.
You need Search Console, that's Google Search Console, and that's what all of us webmasters use to keep on top of errors on a website. So if there's any errors showing up on a website, Google's crawled a page and then suddenly change the name of that page and it can't find it anymore. Search Console will send you an email for that. So inside Search Console, there is a dropdown called Search Traffic. At the bottom of that there's one called Mobile Usability, and they've said the best way to guarantee that you're gonna be okay for this new Mobile First Indexing change, is to check that page.
So if you have any errors on that page, which means that Google can't check some of your pages because it's not mobile usable, then you need to get on top of that. And if you have anything on there that says it can't crawl your website, on the Mobile Usability page, you need to get on top of that, because that's Google trying to check your website as a mobile phone. So that's the best place to look.
Chris Hogan: Cool. So, to recap, when does this come out?
Andrew Groat: They're already rolling it out.
Chris Hogan: It's now.
Andrew Groat: They're testing it ... They said they're testing it on a select few websites right now.
Chris Hogan: Right.
Andrew Groat: And then it's gonna be rolled out country by country, so.
Chris Hogan: Heck yeah.
Andrew Groat: Even as we're saying this, it's probably already starting.
Chris Hogan: And what's our average across our clients, what's the average number of searches via mobile at the moment?
Andrew Groat: It's about 50%, it's probably more like 60 to 65%, is mobile traffic. And depending on what industry you're in, it's probably higher. Like we have some clients that are up to 80% mobile. Anything that involves ticketing for some reason, is always a lot higher. Even these days, e-commerce is a lot higher. E-commerce used to only happen on desktop, it's more that 50% on mobile now. People are becoming more trusting to putting credit card details through mobile. It's getting easier, there's better payment systems now.
Chris Hogan: You can save your credit card details on your phone, just like you can on your laptop.
Andrew Groat: Your AfterPay, PayPal, it's a lot more secure now so.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: Yeah, very serious.
Chris Hogan: Very serious guys. So if you aren't taking this seriously, then say goodbye to 60, 80% of your traffic from Google search results.
Andrew Groat: If not all of it. If you don't have a mobile version, you're probably gonna be gone.
Chris Hogan: Give us a call if you need help, we're here to spread the love. Andrew will give you a big cuddle.
Andrew Groat: Over the phone.
Chris Hogan: Consult, console you.
Andrew Groat: And then we'll figure out a solution.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: After the cuddle.
Chris Hogan: Yeah. We do virtual cuddles. Thanks very much Andrew, that was very insightful. Thanks for watching guys. 'Get Fact Up' is available on MeMedia.com.au, also available on our Facebook page and on YouTube. You can subscribe there and get notified as soon as we go live with that vid. Stay tuned, and we'll see you next week.
Andrew Groat: Thank you.
View all episodes
By MeMedia, Chris HoganPublished Mar 23, 2018
Chris Hogan: Good day all, Chris Hogan and Andrew Groat come to you live from Me Media studio here in Burleigh for episode 80 of 'Get Fact Up'. And today we're talking about...
Andrew Groat: The new mobile update for Google, the Google search.
Chris Hogan: Look out peeps. Are you in for some trouble if you don't get this right?
Andrew Groat: So last year Google rolled out what everyone affectionately named "Mobilegeddon", where it started marking down people's websites, or penalising people's websites that didn't have mobile friendliness. So that's been in effect for probably a year now I'd say. And the way that worked, it would check your website, see if it was mobile friendly. If it wasn't mobile friendly, you would be pushed further down the results. So that's been going for a bit and we've said that before, that you really need to take that seriously, because they're only gonna get more heavy handed with that.
The mobile usage is growing. It's not changing, it's growing exponentially and now we've got like Google voice search, iPhone voice search, Siri voice search ... Sorry Alexa voice search.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: And all of that is only showing mobile results, so it's only going further that way. And now Google have gone a little bit further with that new indexing strategy, and they're about to roll out a new thing called Mobile First Indexing, where they only check the mobile version of your website. Only index the mobile version. If you don't have a mobile version, they don't even look.
Chris Hogan: You will not be on Google's search results, if you don't have a mobile website.
Andrew Groat: So it's only something that they're slowly rolling out now. They're testing it on a couple of websites, but they will be rolling it out, they're 100% confirmed on that. So, that is a problem for people that don't have mobile friendly websites.
Chris Hogan: You're warned. You're warned. And there's still people that don't have mobile websites. Some of them have by their [inaudible 00:02:10] credit a really dodgy version of their desktop version, and said, "This will do." And what's that gonna do for them Andrew?
Andrew Groat: Well that means only that dodgy version will be in the search results now.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: So, if you have a really, really good desktop site, doesn't matter. So the big thing here is, you shouldn't have a separate mobile version of the website. And I've done a bit of research this morning and we've always said responsive web design is the way to go. 100%. So you... To explain that a little bit better. If you have a mobile version of your website, that's when you have ABC.com.au as your desktop website, and then maybe M.ABC.com.au as your mobile only website. That's the only thing that's gonna be indexed now, is the mobile website.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: So if you've got a kind of crappy version of your main website as your mobile site, then kiss the good one goodbye.
Chris Hogan: And responsive websites are the ones that basically resize. So, they should be designed to resize from a desktop view, down to an iPad view, down to different width iPhone ... Sorry, phone widths, mobile phone widths. And it should show the same content.
Andrew Groat: The same information, yeah. It should.
Chris Hogan: And that's great and the reason why people should have done it that way, or should be doing it that way, is because it means that when you update your website, which might be from a laptop computer, most of the time... Or sorry, a desktop computer. Then what you're seeing on your desktop is what you're also gonna see on your mobile. And then it's just a quick check, "yep, displays fine." Done. And the content is exactly the same. So, you haven't had to do it in two places and be all tricky. And yeah, now if you don't have it, you're not gonna show on Google's search results, so.
Andrew Groat: So you have to sort of ask yourself... You may not know if you have a responsive website or you just have a mobile version or something else. But you have to ask yourself, "When I look at my website on the phone, is it a different experience in terms of the content and information to someone on the desktop?" If it is, that's a problem. So Google's only gonna be reading the mobile version. Google is only checking your phone on a mobile, and it's only using that content to put it in the search results. So that could have a huge impact on your SEO. If you have cut down versions of all your text or you have cut down versions of anything. Or you just literally not showing certain pages, they're gone.
Chris Hogan: Crazy.
Andrew Groat: So there's a couple of ways you can check this.
Chris Hogan: That was my next question.
Andrew Groat: So Google has the mobile testing tool, we'll put a link to that down at the bottom. Now one thing about that, it's about to be updated. So when Google releases this update, they're also gonna have an updated version of this mobile friendly test. So you can check that now, and it might say it's okay, there might be a couple of things you need to fix up. As soon as they re-release this indexing update, you can guarantee they'll have a new version of this mobile testing tool. So keep on top of that. But the best way to test, and this may be a little bit over people's heads, and we can put some links in to get this setup.
You need Search Console, that's Google Search Console, and that's what all of us webmasters use to keep on top of errors on a website. So if there's any errors showing up on a website, Google's crawled a page and then suddenly change the name of that page and it can't find it anymore. Search Console will send you an email for that. So inside Search Console, there is a dropdown called Search Traffic. At the bottom of that there's one called Mobile Usability, and they've said the best way to guarantee that you're gonna be okay for this new Mobile First Indexing change, is to check that page.
So if you have any errors on that page, which means that Google can't check some of your pages because it's not mobile usable, then you need to get on top of that. And if you have anything on there that says it can't crawl your website, on the Mobile Usability page, you need to get on top of that, because that's Google trying to check your website as a mobile phone. So that's the best place to look.
Chris Hogan: Cool. So, to recap, when does this come out?
Andrew Groat: They're already rolling it out.
Chris Hogan: It's now.
Andrew Groat: They're testing it ... They said they're testing it on a select few websites right now.
Chris Hogan: Right.
Andrew Groat: And then it's gonna be rolled out country by country, so.
Chris Hogan: Heck yeah.
Andrew Groat: Even as we're saying this, it's probably already starting.
Chris Hogan: And what's our average across our clients, what's the average number of searches via mobile at the moment?
Andrew Groat: It's about 50%, it's probably more like 60 to 65%, is mobile traffic. And depending on what industry you're in, it's probably higher. Like we have some clients that are up to 80% mobile. Anything that involves ticketing for some reason, is always a lot higher. Even these days, e-commerce is a lot higher. E-commerce used to only happen on desktop, it's more that 50% on mobile now. People are becoming more trusting to putting credit card details through mobile. It's getting easier, there's better payment systems now.
Chris Hogan: You can save your credit card details on your phone, just like you can on your laptop.
Andrew Groat: Your AfterPay, PayPal, it's a lot more secure now so.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: Yeah, very serious.
Chris Hogan: Very serious guys. So if you aren't taking this seriously, then say goodbye to 60, 80% of your traffic from Google search results.
Andrew Groat: If not all of it. If you don't have a mobile version, you're probably gonna be gone.
Chris Hogan: Give us a call if you need help, we're here to spread the love. Andrew will give you a big cuddle.
Andrew Groat: Over the phone.
Chris Hogan: Consult, console you.
Andrew Groat: And then we'll figure out a solution.
Chris Hogan: Yeah.
Andrew Groat: After the cuddle.
Chris Hogan: Yeah. We do virtual cuddles. Thanks very much Andrew, that was very insightful. Thanks for watching guys. 'Get Fact Up' is available on MeMedia.com.au, also available on our Facebook page and on YouTube. You can subscribe there and get notified as soon as we go live with that vid. Stay tuned, and we'll see you next week.
Andrew Groat: Thank you.