SEO
Mobile-First Indexing
Quick definition
Mobile-first indexing is Google's practice of primarily using the mobile version of a site's content for indexing and ranking.
Since 2023, mobile-first indexing applies to all new and most existing sites. The mobile version is what Googlebot crawls and ranks.
Why Mobile-First Indexing matters
If your mobile site hides content, navigation, or structured data that's present on desktop, you'll lose ranking signals attached to that content.
How Mobile-First Indexing works in practice
Ensure parity between desktop and mobile: same content, same internal links, same structured data, same metadata. Use responsive design rather than separate mobile templates.
Best practices
- Match content and metadata across mobile and desktop.
- Don't hide important content on mobile.
- Test mobile rendering in Search Console's URL Inspection.
- Use responsive design over m-dot subdomains.
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Related terms
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the practice of optimizing a website's infrastructure — crawling, indexing, performance, and architecture — to improve search visibility.
Indexing
Indexing is the process by which search engines add discovered pages to their searchable index, making them eligible to rank for queries.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are a set of Google-defined user-experience metrics measuring loading performance (LCP), interactivity (INP), and visual stability (CLS).