24th July 2024 by 
Google has been focusing on mobile-first indexing for several years. Mobile-first indexing means that Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the website content for indexing and ranking. Now Google have announced that from July 5th this year, Google will stop indexing and ranking websites that do not render on mobile devices. This is due to the desktop Googlebot being switched to the mobile Googlebot. However, there is a key point to this upcoming change.
If your website is accessible on a mobile device Google will still index and rank your website. If your website does not render on a mobile device Google will not index it.
So, if your website renders on a mobile device but may not be mobile-friendly (i.e. it is not responsive), Google will still crawl, index and rank your website content. Although, your ranking will take a hit due to your website not being mobile-friendly. The Googlebot will crawl the content if your desktop templates load correctly on a mobile device.
It is also worth noting that Google will still utilise the desktop Googlebot to index features such as product listings and Google for Jobs.
Long time coming
This move doesn’t come as a real surprise. Google has long advocated for mobile-first websites as they offer the best user experience. But, it is a step towards prioritising mobile accessibility to reflect the changing trends in internet usage. As mobile devices generate the majority of web traffic, having a mobile-friendly website is a must. So, this change to the Googlebot will not have much of an impact on those websites that already offer a mobile-friendly experience.
It is easy to associate ‘mobile-friendliness’ to this change to the Googlebot as it has been at the forefront of our web design and development projects for the past several years. Any website developed within the past half a dozen years is not likely to have any problem with this transition.
Mobile indexing is unrelated to mobile-friendliness. A site can be mobile-unfriendly and be indexed completely fine.
John Mueller, Google
Time to update?
Older websites that may still utilise table-based layouts will still be indexed but consideration should be given to redeveloping the website to be responsive and mobile-friendly. Google provides a number of tools such as Search Console to help you perform an audit on your website. These audits will provide recommendations and insights are how best to enhance the user experience on your website.
These recommendations are usually but not limited to improving site speed, enhancing navigation and optimising content. Adopting features such as SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics) for graphics and lazy loading can significantly improve the user experience. Therefore, those features can help your content rank higher up the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Our team of digital designers and web developers can help you enrich your website content with such features. Our team can also give your website a complete design refresh by adding mobile-friendly elements. So, if you need a helping hand in updating your current website, get in touch with us.
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