Google's Mobile-First Indexing: Everything We Know (So Far)

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Since Google first announced that it was experimenting with mobile-first indexing in 2016, there has been a ton of information published.

Over the years, Google has provided us with new information and updates on how to prepare.

Below is a compilation of what we know so far about Google's mobile-first indexing.

There is no separate index for mobile
Of all the things listed about mobile-first indexing, this one is widely known.

However, it is widely known to us in the research community, but it is still a confusing concept to those outside of our industry.

Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings, Google has stated that there is no separate index for mobile devices.

Instead, mobile-first indexing means that korea telegram data primarily uses the mobile version of the web page for ranking and indexing purposes.

In 2018, Google explained that with mobile-first indexing, the URL of the mobile-optimized version of your site is indexed.

If your site has separate mobile and desktop URLs, Google will show the URL for mobile users and the URL for desktop users.

However, regardless, the indexed content will be the mobile version.

You can't force a switch to mobile-first indexing – you can't opt ​​out either
In late 2017, Google announced that it would begin a slow rollout of mobile-first indexing. In March 2018, Google announced that it was expanding the rollout and instructed websites to prepare.

As of the date of this article, however, not all sites have been enabled for mobile-first indexing. In August 2019, John Mueller encouraged site owners to be patient, because eventually their sites would be transferred.

Martin Splitt, who works in Google's Developer Relations, explained that there's no way to know exactly when a site will move to mobile-first indexing, and at the same time, there's nothing you can do to speed up the process.

Similar to not being able to force your site to move to mobile-first indexing, you also cannot opt ​​out.

Google decides whether a site is mobile-ready based on the parity of text, links, images, and videos, as well as structured data and other metadata.

Mueller has also warned website owners for some time that using too much JavaScript can prevent a site from moving to mobile-first indexing.

If you're using an app interstitial to replace your website's homepage, that's also problematic, according to Mueller.

Webmasters will be notified in Search Console when Google determines that their site is ready for mobile-first indexing.

You can hear Mueller and Splitt explain when sites move to mobile-first indexing in the video below, starting at 25:08:

“This may take a while. There’s another question [in the queue] asking how can I switch to Googlebot for mobile. There’s no way to opt in or out, we’re just progressively switching or moving sites to mobile-first indexing, but there’s no way to say, ‘Oh yeah, next week it’ll be you.’ Just be patient. It’ll happen. It’ll be fine.”

Mobile-first indexing is applied to new sites by default
If your site was published after July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is enabled by default. Google made this announcement in May 2019 and explained that the change applied to sites that were previously unknown in Google Search.

The announcement went into detail about why Google would make mobile-first indexing the default for new websites.

According to Google, after crawling the web with a Googlebot smartphone over the years, they've concluded that new websites are often ripe for this type of crawling.

Unlike sites published before July 1, 2019, Google does not notify webmasters in Search Console that their site is ready for mobile-first indexing.

Websites should provide the same experience on mobile and desktop devices
Google added its mobile-first indexing best practices in January 2020, and the big emphasis was on providing an identical experience across mobile and desktop.

Matt Southern provided a great summary of what Google meant by the same experience:

Ensure that Googlebot can access and render content and resources on mobile and desktop pages.
Making sure the mobile site contains the same content as the desktop site.
Using the same robots meta tags on both mobile and desktop sites.
Using the same titles on both the mobile and desktop site.
Ensure that mobile and desktop sites have the same structured data.
Google warns that if you purposefully display less content on the mobile version of a page than on the desktop version, you'll likely experience a drop in traffic.

The reason? According to Google, they won't be able to get as much information from the page as before (when the desktop version was used).

Instead, Google recommends that the main content of your mobile site be the same as your desktop site. Google even suggests using the same headlines on your mobile version.