Mobile-first Indexing on Google
Mobile-first indexing is coming! Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking, to better help their users find what they're looking for. Is your mobile website prepared?
Over 50% of websites are viewed on a mobile device worldwide. That number is tremendous on its own but consider the jump from .7% less than 10 years ago. It's easy to see where the trend is headed.
Website owners began receiving emails in September 2018 about Google's change to mobile-first indexing. Google announced this back in March 2018.
Here is what Google is sending out to website owners:
Mobile-first indexing enabled for... [insert website URL here]
This means that you may see more traffic in your logs from Googlebot Smartphone. You may also see that snippets in Google Search results are now generated from the mobile version of your content.
Background: Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, to better help our (primarily mobile) users find what they're looking for. Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have historically used the desktop version of your site's content, which can cause issues for mobile searchers when the desktop version differs from the mobile version. Our analysis indicates that the mobile and desktop versions of your site are comparable.
Let's break this down to the main types of websites.
Do you need to do anything?
- If you are a website owner this is something you need to pay attention to. If you are unsure about the state of your website, feel free to contact us at 317-834-6560 or
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . - If your website is desktop only, there are no changes to make. Though if you have a desktop only website, you should reach out to us to discuss creating a mobile friendly website since primarily, people are using mobile devices to view your site.
- If your website is responsive (adjusts for screen size), there are no changes since you only have one website for Google to pull from.
- Does your site use separate URLs or dynamic URLs for desktop, mobile, or varying devices? Google will pull from the mobile URL for indexing. You need to make sure that your mobile website has the correct information for Google to pull from.
Your website needs updating. Now what?
If your mobile website needs to be updated to contain the same information as your desktop site, contact us today.
