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Google changing to a mobile-first index soon
Google is splitting its mobile and desktop indexes within ‘months’. This will offer better smartphone experiences, according to a Google webmaster trends analyst
The most up-to-date search results could be limited to mobile following Google’s split of its index between desktop and smartphone.
Desktop Google searches could end up slightly out of date compared to those done via smartphones, as the company begins to push mobile search.
Google is fully splitting its search index into two distinct versions: a rapidly updated mobile one, and a separate, secondary search index for the desktop web.
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This is going to be a huge makeshift in the way Google indexes search results. Googler Gary Illyes announced in a Pubcon that Google is almost ready to switch to a mobile first index. This means that from now Google will start indexing the mobile version of pages as its primary index. So far, Google has considered desktop as its primary index.
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The change will hit within “months”, according to a Google webmaster trends analyst, Gary Illyes, speaking at digital marketing conference Pubcon in Las Vegas, and will leave the desktop version of the index less up to date than the mobile one.
Googler Gary Illyes just announced that Google is switching from a desktop focused index to a mobile-first index. That’s rather big news, because Google always favored the desktop version of sites for ranking, even on mobile. This move puts mobile front and center. However, it’s not entirely unexpected. Mobile search is growing so fast that this move was almost inevitable. Site owners must ensure their mobile site presents the correct content at all times.
It’s the culmination of a long-running push by Google to encourage webmasters to prioritize mobile-friendly versions of their sites. The search engine already promotes sites that work well on mobile devices over ones that don’t, a change introduced in April 2015. Criteria for that promotion include features such as text size and how easily tappable links are on smartphone touchscreens.
Maintaining a fully separate index would allow Google to expand the push by judging sites with alternate mobile and desktop sites very differently, putting an end to the sort of situation where clicking through from a search result leads to a mobile site that has none of the promised information.
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land said: “The most substantial change will likely be that by having a mobile index, Google can run its ranking algorithm in a different fashion across ‘pure’ mobile content rather than the current system that extracts data from desktop content to determine mobile rankings.”
It’s not the first time Illyes has mentioned the split, having discussed it at the SMX conference in September last year, but webmasters are taking note of the proposed date for the transition.
Joost de Valk, who runs search optimization firm Yoast.com, said that the change is “the logical next step” for the search engine. “It makes sense to me that they’d have two separate indexes and treat them as equals, but now they’ve got a primary one. That makes sense too, because it’s probably the fastest way for them to grow their index,” de Valk said.
“I think in part it is about pushing people to change their sites to be responsive rather than having a separate desktop and mobile site. By saying that their mobile index is more important, it will push people to focus on their mobile sites.”
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