Google’s Mobile-First Indexing

What is Google Mobile-First Indexing?
Before any searches are made online, Google crawls all webpages to gather and analyse information in order to organise it. This is known as indexing. During the last couple of years, the use of mobile devices to make searches has increased. This has resulted in Google now shifting priority towards the mobile version of content on online platforms in its indexing. The search engine will be implementing this change officially from the end of March 2021. This deadline has been set for businesses to prepare their sites to be ready for mobile-first indexing.
So what can you do to prepare for this change? We have put together a short checklist that will make the transition a little less daunting.
- Ensure Googlebot can see your content
If Googlebot can’t access the full content and resources on your website, your site will not be indexed so it is critical to check this. You can check to see if your website is mobile-friendly by using Google Mobile-Friendly Test Tool.
- Use the same robots meta tags on the mobile version of the site
- Use the following lazy-loading practices
- Confirm that content is the same on mobile version and desktop version
- Try and maintain the same image URLs on mobile version as desktop version
SEO for Visual, Video & Audio Searches

What are Visual, Video & Audio Searches?
When each of the mediums (visual, video, audio) are used as the stimuli for online searches, this is known as either visual, video or audio searches. The mediums are analysed by AI (artificial intelligence) technology and it returns a list of related results making it more timely for users to perform searches.
Studies show that in 2020 over 50% of users made searches online using these alternate mediums. This is predicted to increase over 2021 with more users turning to visual, video and audio searches as a convenient way to browse online.
As this shift is happening within the online space, it’s important that businesses guarantee that their online content is optimised for these alternative search methods.
How do you optimise for Visual, Video & Audio Search?
Name Your Images
Appropriately name images based on the content.
Add Titles
Add title attributes instead of having key smash.
Use Alt Tags
This is very important. Alt tags need to be detailed where possible and contain appropriate keywords.
Easy to Consume Content

Visuals
Try and increase the amount of visual/graphic content
Interactivity
Try and incorporate some form of interactivity within the content
Short Clips
When creating video content, ideal duration is no longer than 20-30 seconds
Concise
Try make any text as concise as possible or include a summary option for consumers to read
High Increase in Ecommerce Website Traffic

Over 2020 there was a drastic increase in website traffic for ecommerce businesses, this is predicted to continue to increase over 2021. This trend is one that needs to be considered when any strategy is being developed especially for small businesses. There will be a strong need to guarantee that your business appears in the top results of a Google search. This high position can be secured by considering the trends mentioned above as well as re-evaluating SEO strategies and the overall look/feel of your website.
For ecommerce businesses, it’s important to make the necessary changes to ensure that you capitalise on this increase and improve your conversion rate. Here’s a quick checklist of ecommerce must-haves to help you get started.
- Good Website Design
- Website Speed
- Up-to-date, quality of content
- A positive first impression
- Use of analytic and reporting data
- Search-optimised Copywriting