The concept of mobile-first website design came into existence back in 2009 . Even though many people were initially skeptical about this concept, it managed to garner attention. Expecting immediate success is something you should not do when it comes to mobile-first web design. Even the sale of smartphones came up as a steady surprise. The statistics below demonstrate it very well.
Why Mobile-First Is More Important Now Than Ever Before
No matter even if you read this post somewhere in 2020 , the subheading stated above will hold the same significance as it holds today. It is because as time passes, the importance of getting the website responsive will continue to increase.
As per the article submitted by Business Insider on March 11, 2015 , “In total, global smartphone shipments grew roughly 35% year-over-year (YOY) in the fourth quarter of 2014 , culminating a year in which the market surpassed the 1 billion shipments milestone for the first time, according to BI Intelligence estimates.”
Several surveys had shown that it was actually in 2014 when mobile overtook desktop. Morgan Stanley Research shows it clearly that when mobile overtook desktop as per the number of users worldwide.
It has become quite evident that mobile has gained a superior position when it comes to procedure and authority. More and more users are making use of mobile for browsing the internet.
Google’s Update For Mobile-First
Since 21 st April 2015 , Google started giving more preference to mobile-friendly sites in SERP.
Google made a justified statement through that update. It was probably because more and more people are steadily relying upon their mobile phones for browsing the internet. With growing mobile browsing stats, Google’s update seems to make complete sense. Google eventually had set several parameters based upon which the mobile website could acquire a better position in search engines. To know the parameters better, you can check out our post, Responsive Design Techniques To Implement .
Google’s Most Recent Update For Mobile-First
In March 2020 , Google Webmaster page announced its plans to begin indexing ALL websites for mobile-friendly capacities from September 2020. It will lead to better crawling results and higher rankings on SERP. Significantly, Google’s recommendation rings true as the digital world is now preparing for the second stage of responsive designs and step into a more advanced world of an interconnected stream of results. The content of the website matters, and Google advises on keeping the same content for both the mobile and non-mobile versions, keeping the importance of their platforms equal. We cannot be confident that the mobile-friendly designs will not have to completely transform themselves into mobile-based designs because smartphones are here to stay. As the official Google Webmaster’s Page states, reflecting their plans-
“Mobile-first indexing has come a long way. It’s great to see how the web has evolved from desktop to mobile, and how webmasters have helped to allow crawling & indexing to match how users interact with the web!”
Conclusion:
With Google’s new update, the responsive design has to be a part of all websites. Until now, the need for the mobile-first design was confined to pleasing the customers and getting more traffic; now, the need has become a necessity. For letting your website achieve sky-high ranking, you will need to adhere to Google’s update and design websites that are well optimized for mobile.