Google is delaying primary indexing based on mobile sites until March 2021

Google will only start indexing all sites based on mobile websites from the end of March 2021, instead of September 2020. The company wants to give administrators more time to adapt their site to mobile-first indexing.

The search engine has been experimenting with primary indexing based on mobile websites for some time now; new and popular websites are already indexed with mobile-first. Last March, Google announced that it would switch to mobile-first indexing for all the websites it indexes in September. Google now says it is moving that deadline to March 2021, because administrators “ cannot simply focus on the work as it was before in these uncertain times. ”

Sites will be indexed with the desktop Googlebot later on, but most of the indexing will go with the mobile version. The move to mobile-first indexing means that websites made only for desktops will be indexed less often. Also, websites where the desktop version shows more than the mobile version will potentially be ranked lower in the search engine. After all, Google will mainly index the mobile website and then miss the information from the desktop site. Google therefore recommends that site administrators make their site available for primary indexing based on mobile websites and offers a few tips for this.

For example, administrators are advised to use the same robot meta tags for both mobile website and desktop site. Also, the use of certain lazy-loading practices, such as having to press a button to view additional images, is discouraged. The Googlebot does not click on these buttons, so Google does not index potentially important images. Using alternative URLs for mobile websites, such as m.xyz.com, is also not recommended as it may confuse the search engine. Google recommends the use of responsive web design for new websites.