Google began displaying Mobile Image Thumbnails back in 2016 but they appeared infrequently. Now it's 2019 and over 45% of mobile search results will show an Image Thumbnail.

When a person types a search term into the Google browser on a mobile device, an Image Thumbnail may appear in the organic search results next to a Description text snippet, along with the Title and URL.

Google is concentrating on Mobile-First Indexing, and change is here.

Google will calculate what it places in their index based on the mobile version of your website. In contrast, they used to index the desktop website version first.

This change has come about due to the elevated number of searches coming from mobile devices. Google has stated that to give users a better experience, they've decided to prioritize mobile results.

Bottom line - what this means is, website owners need to ensure their websites are mobile friendly. If you already have a responsive design for your site, then you shouldn’t be affected.

If you have different websites for desktop and for mobile, and your mobile site has far less content, then you will most likely be affected.

Since Google announced they’ll be indexing mobile friendly sites first in their search results, here are a few tips of how to move your Blog or website nearer the top results. 

As website owners, we need to alter our mindset from being “mobile compatible” to being mobile optimized”.

The process of Mobile Optimizing is making sure visitors accessing a site from their mobile devices and mobile platforms, experience both a visual and technical positive experience.

By all accounts, with Google being the kingfish of Search - as they historically hold the largest search-share market - we have to spend more time on making sure we “get it right” according to Google-specific criteria. Once that groundwork is seeded, the other search engine results will fall in place.

In 2013 Google announced it would be adjusting search rankings appearing on Smartphones and Mobile platforms based on how well a site managed the user experience.

In 2015 Google officially confirmed more Google searches took place on Mobile devices than on desktop computers and tablets in ten countries including the USA and Japan.