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Mobile-First Index: A Data-Driven Analysis & Discussion
The document discusses Google's progressive rollout of the mobile-first index (MFI) and its implications for websites, analyzing data from a variety of domains. It details factors influencing a site's transition to MFI, including crawl ratios, website types, and the importance of content parallelism between mobile and desktop versions. The document also offers practical tips for successfully adapting to the MFI, emphasizing the significance of responsive design and user experience.
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Mobile-First Index: A Data-Driven Analysis & Discussion
- 1. Make search work Mobile-FirstIndex: A Data-Driven Analysis & Discussion
- 2. Agenda Google is rollingout the mobile-first index progressively across all websites. How will a transition to the mobile-first index impact your site? Real customer use cases that illuminate the mobile-first index for a variety of scenarios. So, are you ready for the mobile-first index? 7 tips for a successful transition right now.
- 3. First study ofthe mobile- first index based on real customer data. INTRODUCTION
- 4. Why did weconduct this new study on the mobile-first index? What is the current state of the mobile-first index? What are the criteria that determine whether or not a website is moved to the mobile-first index? How does the mobile-first index impact Google’s crawl on transitioned websites? Questions we wanted to answer:
- 5. Big Questions, BiggerStats: Meet Our Unprecedented Dataset 190 495M 1.52B Unique domains belonging to one of the following industries: Retail Publisher Classifieds URLs analyzed, with data taken from Botify Analytics and server log files. Unique Googlebot crawls analyzed, taken from 30 days of web server log files for each website.
- 6. We studied websitesof all shapes, sizes, and industries Dataset by IndustriesDataset by Website Sizes (in pages)
- 7. Sites with structural,performative, and geographic diversity Dataset by Mobile Website’s type Dataset by Language
- 8. Google is rollingout the mobile-first index progressively across all websites.
- 9. Percentage of compliantpages (indexable pages) crawled by Google in 30 days. Crawl Ratio Desktop Index vs. Mobile-First Index We consider a website “in” the mobile-first index when the crawl volume for the Google Smartphone user agent is higher than the crawl volume for the Google Search user agent for over 30 days. A Brief Note on Terminology
- 10. 34% of surveyedwebsites had transitioned to the MFI by October 2018 State of the Mobile-First Index in October 2018
- 11. Big increase sinceJune 2018. Google continues to roll out the MFI progressively, but now at a much faster pace. June to July 2018: September to October 2018: 9.6% 34%
- 12. Website’s Type Industry Website’s size Mobilewebsite type Language Log File KPIs Crawl Volume (Search & Smartphone) Crawl Ratio Desktop Visits Mobile Visits Avg. Visits Structural KPIs Load Times PageRank Dilution Outlinks Content Size Content vs. Template % How does Google prioritize websites for MFI? We tested for:
- 13. Smaller websites aremore likely to enter the MFI first Smaller websites have a greater chance of entering the mobile-first index first. Google is giving the largest sites longer to prepare, or is moving them over at a slower pace to ensure successful transitions, or both. From a risk assessment point of view, this makes sense, because smaller websites should be easier to move for both Google and the the site stakeholders. NUMBER OF URLs Mobile-First Index* Desktop Index
- 14. Websites with highercrawl ratios are prioritized to enter the MFI first Sites with high crawl ratios are more likely to enter the mobile-first index first. Familiarity with, and comprehension of, a given website both appear to enter Google’s calculus when marking the domain for transition. This lines up with our first observation - smaller sites are more likely to enter MFI, due to higher crawl ratios (see: crawl budget). CRAWL RATIO Mobile-First Index* Desktop Index
- 15. Why Have PublishersRocketed into MFI? Potentially due to fresh content, publishers are crawled by Google more often than retailers and classifieds. This leads to higher crawl ratios. Does that explain the high number of publishers in MFI? Mobile-First Index* Desktop Index 43% 55% 62% CLASSIFIEDS RETAILERS PUBLISHERS Crawl Ratios by Industry INDUSTRY
- 16. The Mobile-First IndexLoves Responsive Websites Responsive websites are much more likely to enter the mobile-first index first. Google appears to feel that it’s less risky to transition responsive websites, since the same page is served regardless of device/user agent. By contrast, Mobile URL and Dynamic Serving websites serve different pages depending on the user agent. This can hurt content parallelism, if the mobile page doesn’t match the desktop page. Mobile-First Index* Desktop Index MOBILE WEBSITE’S TYPE
- 17. Surprisingly, many SEOindicators DO NOT impact transition to MFI We’ve tested the following criteria with no significant results: Load Times Content Size Avg. Visits PageRank Dilution Mobile vs. Desktop Content Visibility Outlinks Visits Language
- 18. How will atransition to the mobile-first index impact your site? CRAWL RATIO & CRAWL VOLUME
- 19. Creature of Habit:Googlebot Crawls Indexed Pages More Frequently in MFI Transitioned websites saw a surge in crawl volume, but a slight decrease in crawl ratio. Googlebot crawled less unique pages, but crawled those pages more frequently. Googlebot crawled “known” (i.e. indexed) URLs more frequently to ensure their transition to the mobile-first index. Will the trend last? Websites in the Mobile-First Index: * Compared to websites that were still in the Desktop Index in October 2018 Crawl Volume* +15% Crawl Ratio* -5%
- 20. Responsive Websites CRUSHTransition to Mobile-First Index Parallelism between desktop and mobile website versions is key to a successful transition in the mobile-first index. Dynamic Serving and Mobile URL websites are more likely to display less accessible pages or pages with less content, among other issues. Dataset by Mobile Website’s type Crawl Ratio* Crawl Volume* -17%-6% Responsive Websites Crawl Ratio* Crawl Volume* +46%+5% * Compared to websites that were still in the Desktop Index in October 2018
- 21. Actual Data, Real Results:Customer Use Cases A Tale of Two Transitions: Smooth When things don’t just go right, but actually get better, during transition to mobile-first index.1 A Tale of Two Transitions: Uh-Oh A Mobile URL website sees its crawl plummet after the transition.2 Responsive Website: Not Invincible Responsive websites are conquering the MFI, but issues like bad JavaScript rendering hurt.3
- 22. 1 A Taleof Two Transitions: Smooth When things don’t just go right, but actually get better, during a responsive site’s transition to the mobile-first index.
- 23. Temporary crawl volume increases whenthe website enters the mobile- first index MFI Transition Generates Huge Surge in Crawls
- 24. *From September 20thto October 20th Backbone of Site’s Steady Performance: Content Parallelism Between Desktop/Mobile
- 25. 2 A Taleof Two Transitions: Uh-Oh A Mobile URL website sees its crawl plummet after the transition.
- 26. Same Movie: MFITransition Generates Huge Surge in Crawls… EXCEPT... Temporary crawl volume increases when the website enters the mobile- first index
- 27. *From September 9thto October 9th Long Term Crawl Volume Deteriorates. Key KPIs Tank Across the Board.
- 28. 87% of theURLs have content similarity below 60% between mobile and desktop versions. What sealed the doom? Low content similarity rears its ugly head.
- 29. 3 Responsive Website:Not Invincible Responsive websites are conquering the MFI, but issues like bad JavaScript rendering can really hurt.
- 30. Same Movie: MFITransition Generates Huge Surge in Crawls...EXCEPT... Temporary crawl volume increases when the website enters the mobile-first index
- 31. *From October 10thto November 9th Crawl Volume Nears Vanishing Point After the Transition
- 32. *From October 10thto November 9th Hit Where It Hurts: Performance Slides As Visits Plunge
- 33. So, are youready for the Mobile-First Index? 7 tips for a successful transition right now.
- 34. The Big 7:Key MFI Tips That Any Site Can Implement Ensure site performance by enforcing content parallelism. Foresee and confirm MFI transition through log file analysis. Optimize user experience by improving mobile load times. Verify mobile version is accessible to Google Smartphone. Embrace coherence by aligning schema for desktop/mobile versions. Maintain seamless navigation by properly updating your hreflang tags. Keep all common mobile best practices (rel=alternate / rel=canonical)
- 35. Request a customizeddemo of your website to see how Botify can help you succeed in the mobile-first index ! Request a Demo