SEO: Is Your Car Dealer Website Ready for Google’s Mobile-First Index?

A change to Google’s search index is coming that will have a negative impact on all websites that are not mobile responsive, which may apply to ageing car dealer websites and template sites, and particularly those where your website provider has set up a separate mobile site alongside your desktop version.

Google’s rankings have historically been based on the desktop version of a site, but as most people today search using mobile devices, this can be an issue when the mobile version has different content to the desktop version, as the ranking is based on a page not actually displayed to the mobile searcher.

So, to make their results more useful, Google have been experimenting for over a year now on making their search index “mobile-first” to eventually primarily use the mobile version of websites to rank sites. Although no firm dates have been given, this index switch is expected to be rolled out sometime in 2018.

What does this mean for Car Dealer Websites’ SEO and Google rankings?

If you have a mobile responsive website where the layout, text and image sizes scale correctly to desktop or mobile browsers, you shouldn’t have to make any changes to your website. You can rest easy if you have a Dragon2000 built website, as they are all mobile responsive as standard – so Google’s index change won’t affect your rankings.

However, if you have a website that is not mobile responsive, which may be a basic template or a website that has not been updated in some time, or separate desktop and mobile site versions where the content is different, you really should consider changing to a mobile responsive website now to avoid a ranking drop when Google switch to the mobile-first index.

Google are already pushing all websites to be secure, requiring them to have SSL Certificates, which we also include as standard with all Dragon2000 built websites. As Google’s next aim is to improve the mobile user experience, it is vital that Car Dealers, Garages and Workshops don’t risk missing out on a growing mobile audience and ensure their website is secure and mobile responsive.

Dragon2000 have been helping dealers and garages drive their businesses forward since 1995. Talk to our team today on 01327 222 333 or email sales@dragon2000.co.uk to find out how our dealer management system, car dealer websites and mobile apps can help your business increase profits and reduce costs.