Mobile-first indexing: what to get right first

There is no clever trick in this one, just a handful of decisions worth making deliberately. If you only fix one thing about mobile-first indexing this quarter, make it the first item below.

Search engines are trying to answer a question, so the pages that answer questions clearly tend to do well. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Start here

The mobile version of your page is the one that gets indexed. None of that requires a large budget, only a decision and someone to own it. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Then this

Content hidden on mobile carries less weight. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Eventually

Parity between mobile and desktop content matters. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

What this looks like day to day

Technical fixes remove obstacles; content earns the position. Both are needed and they are not interchangeable. Three things worth confirming about mobile-first indexing before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Content hidden on mobile carries less weight — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.