Google Search Mobile-First Indexing Just Made Desktop Second-Class

Mobile-First Indexing by default is the new way of things at Google Search. This won't come as a surprise to those that've been watching the throne – Google's been headed toward this day for a long time. But today's the day. Today is when the official Googlebot army begins indexing new webpages with a mobile-first approach.

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Mobile-first indexing is set to be default for Google Search results on all "new, previously unknown to Google Search" websites starting July 1st, 2019. For all websites already in play – your day is coming soon enough.

What's this mean for the average reader? Google searchers around the world will not see immediate changes. This mobile-first indexing isn't going to cut all desktop-first websites from Google Search results. That'd be absolute madness.

This is Google preparing for a mobile-first computing world. Google knows GOOD and well that most internet business is conducted on mobile devices. As such, they're favoring content on the web with setups that are optimized for mobile devices.

A website that'll load in 5 seconds will more likely appear in Google Search results than a website that takes 120 seconds to load. In Google's Prepare for mobile-first indexing guide, Google shows the many ways in which a website owner can prepare for the future.

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If you have a website that serves different content depending on the type of device the user uses, Google "prefers the mobile optimized content for indexing." If you've got separate URLs for mobile-optimized content (m-dot), Google prefers the mobile URL for indexing.

So maybe don't go around hiding content from mobile devices on your website, or your website might not appear in as many search results as it would otherwise. As above, so below! In the future, Google likely aims for search results that all load quickly and look real nice, all according to their own set of guidelines. That's what's coming, and it's coming soon.

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