Google extends deadline for Mobile First: you have to consider that

07/25/2020, 10:28 a.m.
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Google has extended the deadline to switch to Mobile First. In order not to lose hard-earned rankings, website operators should keep a few things in mind.

Google is meeting website operators and extends the period for switching to Mobile First until March 2021. In one Blog post Google gives as the reason that it is not always possible to focus on work in these uncertain times. Some problems were also discovered in tests. In order not to drop any content under the table and lose rankings when indexing, a few adjusting screws should be checked and adjusted before the changeover.

Identical robots meta tags

If there are two versions for the display on desktop devices and on mobile devices, they must set the same robots meta tags. If the tags of the mobile variant differ from those of the desktop variant, this could lead to problems with indexing, according to Google.

Lazy load and hidden content

If you want to keep image and video loading times short using Lazy Load, you should Google’s best practices note. The Google bot, for example, will not interact with buttons to display additional pictures. As a result, he will not see the images hidden behind the button and will not index them. The situation is similar if the Google bot is locked out via the robots.txt file for the correct display of both versions of the website and, for example, cannot find CSS files.

Align content of both versions

From the switch to Mobile First, the content of the desktop version is no longer considered when indexing. This would have a negative impact on rankings hard earned by SEO if the content on which the rankings are based is not available in the mobile version. Google therefore advises to adjust the content (texts, headings, captions, etc.) on both versions.

Best practices for pictures and videos

Images and videos are often offered in stripped-down quality and smaller dimensions in mobile layouts to keep loading times short. Google warns of this. For example, the bot could disregard the content for Google Image Search because of its size and low quality. The URL behind the pictures and videos should also be identical. This can also be found in the Best practices for videos and photos some tips.

Mobile First: Google originally wanted to switch from September 2020

In March, Google announced that it would switch to Mobile First in six or twelve months at the earliest. According to this, website operators should have prepared their page by September 2020 at the latest. In a first step, more than half of all websites were converted in 2018, where the content was equivalent, for example due to a responsive design in the mobile and the desktop version.

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