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Helen Ross 18 April 2018 1 min read

Google's mobile-first indexing no longer a ghost story

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.

  • 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

  • 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.

 

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