{"id":14749,"date":"2022-06-30T11:52:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T11:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/google-mobile-first-index-guide\/437472\/"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:52:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T11:52:12","slug":"where-we-are-today-with-googles-mobile-first-index-via-sejournal-mindyweinstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingnewsbox.com\/?p=14749","title":{"rendered":"Where We Are Today With Google\u2019s Mobile-First Index via @sejournal, @mindyweinstein"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Okay, so it\u2019s been a few years now since Google announced the mobile-first index<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most sites have been moved over to Google\u2019s mobile-first index and it\u2019s no longer a \u201chot\u201d topic in SEO.<\/p>\n

I found a tweet from John Mueller, Google Search Advocate, in 2021 that sums up the lack of focus on this topic the best:<\/p>\n

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My guess is mobile-first indexing has been ongoing for so many years now that it\u2019s more like a \u201cpart of life\u201d :). @maxxeight<\/a> also has a neat tool for testing at https:\/\/t.co\/r9gFpp95uO<\/a> . Most sites are moved over, so I don\u2019t expect giant fluctuations.<\/p>\n

\u2014 🐐 John 🐐 (@JohnMu) March 12, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Going with that mentality that mobile-first indexing is a \u201cpart of life\u201d (which I wholeheartedly agree with), as an SEO, it is helpful to know some of the history and where we are today.<\/p>\n

For instance, since the announcement of the mobile-first index years ago, Google has now also placed emphasis on Page Experience<\/a>, which is a ranking factor and very much incorporates mobile.<\/p>\n

Before we jump into that topic, let\u2019s first get into the beginnings of the mobile-first index and what we know so far.<\/p>\n

Then, we\u2019ll get into what Google is looking for in mobile usability, what it means to have an identical experience on mobile and desktop, how you can meet Google\u2019s expectations of mobile-first best practices, and more.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s Mobile-First Indexing<\/h2>\n

No, There Are Not Two Indexes<\/h3>\n

Google has stated<\/a> that there isn\u2019t a separate mobile-first index.<\/p>\n

Instead, mobile-first indexing means Google primarily uses the mobile version of the webpage for ranking and indexing purposes.<\/p>\n

In 2018, Google explained that with mobile-first indexing, the URL of the mobile-friendly version of your site is indexed.<\/p>\n

If your website has separate mobile and desktop URLs, Google shows the mobile URL to mobile users and the desktop URL to desktop users.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the indexed content will be the mobile version.<\/p>\n

Shifting To The Mobile-First Index<\/h3>\n

At the end of 2017, Google announced that it would start slowly rolling out mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

By March 2018, Google stated that they were expanding the rollout and instructed websites to prepare.<\/p>\n

Fast forward three years later and not all websites have been switched over to the mobile index.<\/p>\n

In June 2020, Google stated that while most websites were set to mobile indexing, there were still many that were not.<\/p>\n

Google announced at that point that instead of switching in September 2020, it would delay mobile-first indexing until March 2021.<\/p>\n

Google cited a number of issues encountered with sites as a reason for delaying the rollout, including problems with robots meta tags, lazy-loading, blocked assets, primary content, and mobile images and videos.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Google removed its own self-imposed deadline in November 2021 explaining that there were still sites that were not yet in the mobile-first index because they weren\u2019t ready to be moved over.<\/p>\n

Google went on to say that the lack of readiness was due to several unexpected challenges faced by these websites.<\/p>\n

According to Google<\/a>, \u201cbecause of these difficulties, we\u2019ve decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google also stated that \u201cwe currently don\u2019t have a specific final date for the move to mobile-first indexing and want to be thoughtful about the remaining bigger steps in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobile-First Indexing As The Default For New Websites<\/h3>\n

If your website was published after July 1, 2019, mobile-first indexing is enabled by default.<\/p>\n

Google made this announcement in May 2019 and explained that the change applied to websites that were previously unknown to Google Search.<\/p>\n

The announcement went into detail about why Google would make mobile-first indexing the default for new websites.<\/p>\n

According to Google, after crawling the web with a smartphone Googlebot over the years, they concluded that new websites are typically ready for this type of crawling.<\/p>\n

Mobile Usability And Mobile-First Indexing Are Not Synonyms<\/h3>\n

In January 2019, Mueller explained that if your content does not pass the mobile usability test, it could still be moved to mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

Even if Search Console\u2019s \u201cmobile usability\u201d report showed that your site had valid URLs, it didn\u2019t mean those pages were ready for mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

Mobile usability is \u201ccompletely separate\u201d from mobile-first indexing, according to Mueller. Consequently, pages could be enabled for mobile-first indexing even if they were not considered usable on a mobile device.<\/p>\n

You can hear Mueller\u2019s explanation in the video below, starting at the 41:12 mark:<\/p>\n

[embedded content]<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, first off, again mobile usability is completely separate from mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

A site can or cannot be usable from a mobile point of view, but it can still contain all of the content that we need for mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

An extreme example, if you take something like a PDF file, then on mobile that would be terrible to navigate. The links will be hard to click, the text will be hard to read.<\/p>\n

But all of the text is still there, and we could perfectly index that with mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

Mobile usability is not the same as mobile-first indexing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In summary, mobile-friendliness and mobile-responsive layouts are not mandatory for mobile-first indexing.<\/p>\n

Since pages without mobile versions still work on a mobile device, they were eligible for indexing.<\/p>\n

The Mobile & Desktop Experiences Should Be The Same<\/h3>\n

Google added to their mobile-first indexing best practices in January 2020, and the big emphasis was on providing an identical experience on mobile and desktop.<\/p>\n

Matt Southern provided a great summarized list of what Google meant by the same experience:<\/p>\n