Preparing for Mobile First Index - Jon Myers

@jondmyers @DeepCrawl
Mobile-First Indexing
Jon Myers
DeepCrawl
Chief Growth Officer
Oct 2017

What are we going to cover?...
• The mobile world now (pre Mobile-first)
• The mobile world in the future (after Mobile-first)
• The future of the future

Google is our world…

2 Trillion searches per year!

15% of searches new each day!

60% of search are on Mobiles!

“Armchair thinking time???”…

The Mobile World Now
(PRE MOBILE-FIRST INDEX)

History of my devices…

History of Mobile…
WAP
HTML
1999 2007 2009 2014 2015 2017
Separate Mobile Pages
(Mobile Site or
Dynamic Delivery)
Responsive
Design
Deep App
Linking
AMP &
Progressive
Web Apps
Mobile-
first
Indexing

History of Mobile SEO Configuration…
Desktop
Mobile
Responsive
AMP pages
Mobile first
One version for desktop devices
One to rule them all - one version designed to work equally good
on desktop and mobile
Dedicated light weight version designed for a fast loading
Dedicated mobile pages served on a separate URL e.g. m.domain
or dynamically served on the same URL
Mobile becomes the PRIMARY version.

Responsive Dynamic Separate
Mobile
Would expect Google to use both
user-agents on the same URL to
validate that the same content is
returned.
Google needs to crawl with both user
agents to validate the mobile version.
Hint: Use the Vary HTTP header!
Google needs to crawl the dedicated
mobile URLs with a mobile user agent to
validate the pages and confirm the
content matches the desktop pages.
How does Google crawl different configurations?...

Types of Mobile Configuration…
1. No Mobile Configuration (desktop only)
2. Responsive
3. Dynamic
4. Desktop + Dedicated Mobile
5. Desktop + AMP
6. Responsive/Dynamic + AMP
7. Desktop + Dedicated Mobile + AMP
8. Responsive + Dedicated Mobile + AMP
9. Responsive + Dynamic + Dedicated Mobile + AMP

Desktop + Dedicated Mobile + AMP…
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
INDEXABLE
Rel=alternate amp
NON-INDEXABLE
www.domain.com
/shirts/amp
www.domain.com
/shirts/
m.domain.com
/shirts/
NON-INDEXABLE
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
* The decision which page is shown for mobile users are
on the Google side

Responsive/Dynamic + AMP…
Responsive /
Dynamic
Page
AMP
Page
Rel=canonical
INDEXABLE
Rel=alternate amp
NON-INDEXABLE
www.domain.com
/shirts/amp
www.domain.com
/shirts/
* The decision which page is shown for mobile users are
on the Google side

The Mobile World in the Future
(AFTER MOBILE-FIRST INDEX)

Time to get SH*T done…
@jondmyers @DeepCrawlSource: https://www.successimpulse.com/products/less-talk-more-action?variant=44575800839

Heavy Tech going ahead…
@jondmyers @DeepCrawlSource: https://betanews.com/2015/09/14/8-early-warning-signs-of-problems-in-your-data-governance-plan/

Impact of Mobile-first…
-CRITICAL- - Desktop only (Heavily Affected)
-HIGH PRIORITY- - Desktop + Dedicated Mobile (Affected)
-HIGH PRIORITY- - Dynamic (Affected e.g. Content Issues)
-MEDIUM PRIORITY- - Responsive (Not affected)
Impact of Mobile-first on different Mobile Configurations:

Potential Issues…
• Site Architecture: Indexation, Crawlability, Canonicalisation,
PageRank, Linking Structure
• Site Content: Content Differences - Titles / H1s,
Description, Body Content. Missing Content - Responsive:
hidden content (no longer an issue after mobile-first),
Dynamic: missing content, Dedicated: missing content
• Tags and Markups: Schema, Hreflang config
• Order of Mobile-first Indexing

Architecture/Tags: Canonicalisation…
Canonicalised Desktop - www.domain.com/shirts/colour=red
Primary Desktop - www.domain.com/shirts/
Primary Mobile - mobi.domain.com/shirts/
Canonicalised Mobile - mobi.domain.com/shirts/colour=red
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
NON-INDEXABLE
www.domain.com
/shirts/amp
www.domain.com
/shirts/
m.domain.com
/shirts/
NON-INDEXABLE
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Desktop
Page
Mobile
Page
INDEXABLE INDEXABLENON-INDEXABLE

Architecture/Tags: Canonicalisation
“When Google moves to
mobile first, the rel
alternate and canonical
tags won't need to be
changed.
rel=alternate mobile will
take precedence over
rel=canonical”
Reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfJEpru0szw
#t=49m34s

Architecture/Tags: Canonicalisation…
“When Google moves to
mobile first, the rel
alternate and canonical
tags won't need to be
changed.
rel=alternate mobile will
take precedence over
rel=canonical”

1,410
Backlinks
303
Backlinks
303
102
Backlinks
102
1,815
Architecture: Authority distribution…
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
NON-INDEXABLE NON-INDEXABLE
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Desktop
Page
Mobile
Page
* There is no need to change the canonical setup. The page
Authority should be passed via “mobile rel alternate”

NON-INDEXABLE INDEXABLENON-INDEXABLE
1,410
Backlinks
303
Backlinks
303
102
Backlinks
Architecture: Internal DeepRank…
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
Rel=canonical
Desktop
Page
Mobile
Page
DeepRank: 2.5
?
DeepRank: 0.2DeepRank: 1.2
1,815
Rel=alternate
mobile
102
* There is no need to change the canonical setup. The page
Authority should be passed via “mobile rel alternate”

Architecture: Internal Site Architecture…
Desktop Site Architecture
www.domain.com
Mobile Site Architecture
m.domain.com
Orphaned Mobile Pages
404

Architecture: Internal Site Architecture (Link Graph)…
“Links on Mobile Pages Will Be
Used For the Link Graph
Mobile-first indexing will use
the links on your mobile pages
for calculating the link graph”
Reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Aq9bFdfMu
E#t=46m05s

Tags: Hreflang configuration…
Desktop
Page
EN Primary
Desktop
EN alternate hreflang
Rel=canonical
DE Primary
DesktopEN alternate hreflang
Rel=canonical Rel=alternate
mobile
Rel=alternate
mobile
Desktop
Page
EN Mobile
Page
EN alternate hreflang
DE Mobile
PageEN alternate hreflang
EN Primary
Desktop
DE Primary
Desktop
DE Mobile
Page
EN Mobile
Page
?
?

Tags: Hreflang configuration…
“Yes, you would have to tag
mobile page.”
Wait a second. No, you actually
don’t.
This is still to be confirmed
closer to the launch of mobile-
first as Google is still
experimenting with this.”
Reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfJEpru0szw#
t=49m50s

Dynamic
Mobile Page
Order of Mobile-first Indexing…
Dynamically served
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Desktop
Page
Mobile
Page
* Which of the different types would
be used for mobile-index?

“If you have a vary header
which returns a different
page for a mobile user agent,
Google will use that as the
mobile page instead of the
responsive page.”
Reference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NyZypIfO
zI&t=36m31s

Dynamic
Mobile Page
Dynamically served
Desktop
Page
Responsive
Page
INDEXABLE
NON-INDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
• Google not always right,
challenge as an SEO!

Desktop
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Responsive
Page
Mobile
Page
INDEXABLENON-INDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
• Watch out for legacy crap!

Desktop
Page
Responsive
Page
INDEXABLE

Dynamic
Mobile Page
Dynamically served
Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
Responsive
Page
INDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
• Responsive page
• But content indexed
from dynamic page
• Google then indexes
that content to the
AMP page

Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Mobile
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Responsive
Page
Mobile
Page
GOOGLE SERP
• Same with Mobile page
• But content indexed
from responsive page
• Google then indexes that
content to AMP page

Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
Responsive
Page
NON-INDEXABLE INDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
• Responsive only is indexed
• Max speed of serving
• Really good set up!

Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate amp
NON-INDEXABLE INDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
Non-mobile
Friendly
• Shitty Solution
• Not best but could work??!?

Desktop
Page
AMP
Page
Rel=canonical
Rel=alternate
mobile
Non-mobile
Friendly
NON-INDEXABLEINDEXABLE
GOOGLE SERP
• Google would love this!!

Priority of indexing/displaying in mobile-first…
Priority of indexing content after
mobile-first release:
1. Dedicated Mobile / Dynamic
2. Responsive
3. Desktop
4. AMP
Priority of displaying in Google
SERPs:
1. AMP (priority)
2. Dedicated Mobile / Dynamic
3. Responsive
4. Desktop

So what’s the optimal setup?...
“So what’s the optimal setup?
- “Responsive Design is Optimal
for Mobile-first
John suggests that a responsive
design is the optimal mobile
setup for mobile-first indexing,
as it avoids the issues of
different content and links on
your mobile pages.”
Reference:ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Aq9bFdfMuE#
t=54m53s

Prepare for the Mobile First
WITH DEEPCRAWL

Responsive & Desktop only…
RESPONSIVE DESKTOP ONLY
You are likely to be f..ine You are likely to be f..ed
Source: The Big Lebowski

If your website uses Dynamic conf…
If your website is dynamic I would recommend two crawls:
• Web Crawl
This is to compare your Desktop’s to Mobile’s site architecture, linking structure and
crawlability.
• Analytics / List Crawl (crawling priority high driving traffic pages)
This is to test if you have the mobile equivalents for all your important pages so the ones
that drive significant amount of traffic OR/AND have authority backlinks.
• Both craws will highlight:
• If mobile configuration is setup correctly;
• You don’t have any significant Content differences;
• All the pages are accessible on Mobile as well etc.

If you have Separate mobile version…
If you website have a Separate mobile version I would recommend two crawls:
• 2 types of Web Crawl
This is to compare your Desktop version to Mobile one to see if your
configuration is setup correctly, you don’t have any significant Content
differences, all the pages are accessible on Mobile as well etc.
• Analytics / List Crawl (crawling priority high driving traffic pages)
This is to test if you have the mobile equivalents for all your important pages so
the ones that drive significant traffic OR/AND have authority backlinks

And everything goes well :)…
Source: The Big Lebowski

DeepCrawl Initial Research…
Initial mobile research, based on the Majestic million.
Highlights:
• 79.5% of sites are responsive
• 19% are dynamically served
• 1.5% of sites have a separate mobile site and link to it within a rel=alternate tag, however
5% redirect to another page/site when recrawled with a mobile user agent
• 91% of websites which are dynamic give a redirect based on the user agent do not have a
“Vary: User-agent header”

What next? Plenty of issues…
Non Secure Form Fields
Pages without Valid Canonical
Tag
Failed URLs
Empty Pages
Max Fetch Time
Thin Pages
Missing H1 Tags
Non-301 Redirects
Pages with Duplicate Body
Duplicate Pages
Malformed URLs
High External Linking
Max URL Length
Missing Titles
Pages with Duplicate Titles
No Descriptions & No Snippets
Unauthorised Pages
5xx Errors
Max Links
Broken Pages (4xx Errors)
Max Description Length
Short Titles
Unlinked Paginated Pages
Hreflang to Non-200 URLs
Non-rel Alted AMP Pages
All Broken Links
Non-reciprocal Mobile/AM
Duplicate Description Sets
Max Content Size
Uncategorised HTTP Response Codes
Max Title Length
Duplicate Body Sets
Duplicate Page Sets
Pages with Duplicate Descriptions
Canonical to Non-200
Max Redirections
Max HTML Size
Short Descriptions
Redirect Loops
Duplicate Title Sets
And more…
Non-200 Mobile/AMP
Excessive Redirects In (Admin Only)
Mobile Links Out Mismatch
Mobile Links In Mismatch
Mobile Word Count Mismatch
Mobile Content Mismatch
Duplicate Pages including Primary

Future of the Future

AMP Pages…
Google is backing the AMP page quite hard
Google preloads AMP pages, images, and
scripts to force them to be fast
Not just for news: AMP added support for
accepting payments via Android pay,
opening the way for ecommerce websites
which are 100% AMP
https://github.com/ampproject/amphtml/issues/7623

Go beyond Responsive with PWA’s…
Progressive Web Apps is:
• Progressive
• Responsive
• App-like
• And more...
Progressive Web Apps can fall back to AMP.
Hint… first load as AMP.
You should think about it now.
Progressively Web App is THE FUTURE.

Jon Myers
DeepCrawl
Chief Growth Officer

Preparing for Mobile First Index - Jon Myers

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