It’s not a surprise, since the mobile devices exceeded desktop in term of search and browsing, it’s completely logical that Google favors the mobile devices with its future “Mobile-First” index, which is in test at the moment and should be launched by a few months. Explanations.
To understand the new functioning of Google Search, it’s essential to understand how works a search engine.
Crawlers, called Googlebot, are programs that permanently and recursively crawl pages on the web and record resources considered relevant. These resources are then added to the Google index, which is on the company’s hard drives. The search engine will analyze the content and give a note of relevance so that the most relevant page at the top of the list.
Before the “Mobile-first” Index
The Googlebots analyze the desktop version of a page to give a note of relevance for the Desktop page and the mobile page.
And it’s here that is situated all the problem because when the mobile page has less content than the desktop page, Google algorithms are not evaluating the actual page that is seen by a mobile searcher.
After the “Mobile-first” Index
This time, the Googlebots will analyze the mobile version of a page to give a note of relevance for the desktop page and the mobile page, that’s why the index is “Mobile-first”.
Result
• If you have a responsive site or a dynamic serving site where the content is equivalent across mobile and desktop, you shouldn’t have to change anything.
• If you have no mobile site, it’s the Desktop version which is taken into account.
• If you have a site configuration where the content is different across mobile and desktop, that’s the big question, we don’t know yet.
We will know more when Google communicates on the subject. The new index will be set up very soon, but Google and respecting deadlines is not a love story so in the meantime it will have to be patient.
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