If you follow the Google Webmaster blog, you would have seen the news drop a few weeks ago that Google has started rolling out mobile-first indexing. As part of the announcement, they’ve dispelled a few myths that have turned (in certain circles) into campfire bogeyman stories.
In case the Webmaster blog is a little too technical, or you don’t have time to go through it, here’s a digest for you:
- Google will continue to have a single index for serving search results to searchers. There is no separate Mobile-First Index.
- In the past, the desktop version of a site was used to help populate the index. This will be moving to the mobile version of a site’s content.
- In the past, the desktop version of a site was used to help populate the index. This will be moving to the mobile version of a site’s content.
- They are beginning the roll out with selected sites. Any sites included in the roll out will be notified via their Search Console.
- As part of this change you’ll see increased traffic from the Smartphone Googlebot
- As part of this change you’ll see increased traffic from the Smartphone Googlebot
- They have confirmed this roll out will not affect how content is ranked.
- The mobile-first indexing is about changing where the content is sourced from (ie the mobile version of a site, not the desktop version), and not how the content is then indexed.
- To quote from the blog for clarity: “As always, ranking uses many factors. We may show content to users that’s not mobile-friendly or that is slow loading if our many other signals determine it is the most relevant content to show.”
And the big question: do you need to worry?
No. All BPD sites are mobile responsive by design.
