Mobile-First Indexing Is Rolling Out

Google is reading the phone version now

Yesterday Google announced that it has started moving sites to mobile-first indexing.

For most of its history, Google read the desktop version of a page to work out what the page was about. For sites that have been moved, it now reads the version a phone receives.

Sites being moved get a message in Search Console saying so. Google says it is starting with sites that already follow its guidance for phones, and the rest are expected to follow.

For a business with a well-built responsive site, this is a non-event. For one whose phone version is a cut-down copy, it matters.

What changes, and what does not

There is still one index, used for every searcher. Google is changing which version of your page it reads, not building a separate set of results for phones.

Google also says being moved brings no ranking advantage in itself, and that sites with only a desktop version will still be included.

What changes is the content Google sees. If the phone version leaves something out, that something stops counting, whatever device the searcher uses.

The speed of the phone version is a separate matter with its own date: page speed becomes part of mobile rankings in July.

What to check

• The same text on the phone as on the computer.
• The same page titles and descriptions on both.
• Structured data, the code describing your address, hours and reviews.
• Images with alt text, the descriptions search engines read.
• Links between pages, including those in footers and sidebars.
• Search Console access for the version that gets the message.

The first is the one that catches older sites. Phone layouts built a few years ago were often designed to be short, and the trimming that made them short is now what Google reads.

Which kind of phone version you have

There are three common arrangements, and each carries a different risk.

A responsive site serves the same page to every device and rearranges it to fit the screen. If nothing is removed along the way, the phone version is complete.

Some sites send phones different code from the same address, sometimes through a plugin that switches to a simplified theme. Whatever that theme leaves out, Google now misses.

Others run a separate mobile site at an address beginning with m, often built years ago as a short summary. Those carry the most risk.

Hidden is not the same as removed

Text tucked into tabs, or into sections that open with a tap, is still on the page, and Google has said it treats that normally on phones.

Text removed from the phone version entirely is a different matter. If the phone template drops the long description of each service, Google no longer reads it.

The quick test is to open a page on your phone and on your computer and compare what each contains, not how it looks.

Structured data, titles and alt text

Separate mobile sites and simplified themes often lack the invisible parts of a page.

Structured data, the hidden code giving search engines your business name, address, hours and rating, is often present only in the desktop template. On a moved site, it might as well not exist.

The same goes for page titles and meta descriptions written for the desktop pages, and for the alt text describing images, which phone templates often drop or never had.

Menus and links on phones

Links between your pages tell Google how they relate and which matter most.

A phone layout that tucks the menu behind a button is fine, since the links are still there. One that drops the footer links, the sidebar of related services or the links within the text loses part of that structure.

Separate mobile sites are the usual culprits, since many were built with a handful of pages and a menu to match.

A worked example

An orthodontic practice in a suburban medical building had a desktop site with a page for each treatment: braces, clear aligners for adults, early treatment for children and retainers.

Years ago a separate mobile site was added, at an address starting with m. It held the phone number, the address, a map and a single list of treatments, and phones were sent to it automatically.

Under mobile-first indexing, Google would read only those short pages. The treatment pages, and the structured data giving the office hours, existed only on the desktop site.

The practice replaced both with one responsive site, so every page carries the same content on any screen, and the old mobile addresses now redirect to their full equivalents.

Search Console was set up for the version of the site actually in use, so the message, when it comes, will reach someone who reads it.

The Search Console message

Google is announcing each move through Search Console, which only helps if someone is looking.

Search Console treats http and https, and addresses with and without www, as separate sites. A site verified only under its old http address may never show the message.

Check which versions are verified, add the one your site actually uses, and make sure notifications go to an email address someone opens.

The counter-case

Plenty of businesses can read this and do nothing.

A responsive site with identical content on every screen is ready as it stands, and Google is likely to move it without anyone noticing.

A site with only a desktop version is not about to disappear from the results; the case for improving it rests on phone visitors, not on this change.

But where the phone version is a separate or simplified site, compare the two this week. The version Google reads should be the complete one.

The check

1. Open three pages on a phone and a computer.
2. Compare the text, not the layout.
3. Look for an m address or a simplified theme.
4. Confirm structured data exists on phone pages.
5. Check the alt text on phone images.
6. Verify the right version in Search Console.
7. Ask your web company about anything that differs.

Step two is the one that matters. Phone layouts are supposed to look different; the question is whether they contain the same words, data and images, since that is now what Google reads.

As with the core update earlier this month, the right response starts with a calm comparison rather than a rush of changes, the approach covered in a broad core update and no particular fix.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.