If your website is inaccessible from a mobile device, Google will no longer index and rank it.
We assumed Google’s mobile-first indexing program, which began in 2016, had been completed in October of last year. However, it will be completed after July 5.
“The small set of sites we’ve still been crawling with desktop Googlebot will be crawled with mobile GoogleBot after July 5, 2024,” Google’s John Mueller said on the Google blog.
Mueller explains:
“The largest part of the web is already being crawled like this, and there is no change in crawling for these sites.” nonetheless, “after July 5, 2024, we’ll crawl and index these sites with only Googlebot Smartphone.”
So, if your site is inaccessible from a mobile device, Google “will no longer” index and rank it.
Mobile compatibility is necessary for Google indexing. Mueller stated, “If your site’s content is not accessible with a mobile device, it will no longer be indexable.”
This has been a long time coming. Google has now put a line in the sand for websites that do not work on mobile.
This differs from saying that if your website is mobile-friendly, Google will not index it. Google is warning that it will not be indexed if your website does not render or load on mobile devices.
It’s acceptable to have a desktop template, as long as the desktop version works on mobile devices.
Continued desktop crawling. Google stated it still utilizes the Googlebot Desktop crawler for product listings and Google for Jobs. This implies that Googlebot Desktop may still appear in your server logs and reporting tools.
Why should we care? For the majority of you, this is likely to be fine. However, if someone hires you to handle SEO on their website and it does not run on your Android phone or iPhone, Google may not crawl and index it after July 5. You will aim to ensure that the site is mobile-friendly and test it with the Google Search Console URL Inspection tool to confirm that it is displayed.
Source- searchengineland
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