Today people most often visit websites from their phones. When Google evaluates a site, it also mainly looks at its mobile version. In this article, based on Google's official guide, we explain what mobile-first indexing is, which design Google recommends and what you need to check on a mobile site.
What is mobile-first indexing?
Google uses the mobile version of a site, that is, content crawled with the smartphone agent, for indexing and ranking. This is called mobile-first indexing (Google Search Central).
This means that a site that looks great on a desktop but shows incomplete content on a phone is evaluated by Google on that incomplete version. So when checking the phone version of your site, pay attention not only to how it looks but also to whether the content is complete. According to Google, a mobile version is not strictly required to appear in search results, but having one is "very strongly recommended".
Which design does Google recommend?
Google recommends responsive web design (design that adapts to the screen size), because it is the easiest to implement and maintain. A responsive site uses the same page and the same address for phones, tablets and computers — only the layout adapts to the screen.
There are also sites with separate addresses for mobile and desktop, or that serve different HTML depending on the device. Most of the detailed recommendations in Google's guide apply to these setups, because the two versions have to be kept consistent.
What should you check on a mobile site?
According to Google's guide, the following should be the same in the mobile and desktop versions:
| What to check | Google's recommendation |
|---|---|
| Content | The mobile site should contain the same content as the desktop site |
| Title and description | The title element and meta description should be equivalent in both versions |
| Structured data | Both versions should have the same structured data |
| Images | Image alt text on the mobile site should be the same as on desktop |
| Robots meta tags | Both versions should use the same robots meta tags |
Hiding content in accordions or tabs on mobile is acceptable — what matters is that the content is there.
Mistakes that weaken the mobile experience
Google's guide contains several specific warnings:
- Don't tie primary content to user interaction. For example, if the main text only loads after a button is tapped (lazy-load), Google may not see it.
- Keep image URLs stable. Don't use image URLs that change every time the page loads.
- Don't let ads crowd the mobile page. Google recommends following the Better Ads Standard, because ads at the top of the page can take up too much of the mobile screen.
Google also suggests similar questions for assessing page experience: does the content display well on mobile devices, are pages served securely, is there an excessive amount of ads and intrusive pop-ups (Google Search Central — page experience).
Measure speed for mobile separately
To check whether you meet the Core Web Vitals thresholds, which reflect a site's speed and usability, it is recommended to measure the 75th percentile of page loads separately for mobile and desktop devices (web.dev — Web Vitals). A site that opens quickly on a computer may show a different result on a phone.
Summary
- Google uses the mobile version of a site for indexing and ranking.
- Google recommends responsive design — it is the easiest to implement and maintain.
- On the mobile version, content, title, description, structured data, alt text and robots tags should match desktop.
- Don't tie primary content to user interaction, and don't let ads crowd the mobile screen.
- Measure Core Web Vitals separately for mobile and desktop.
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📚 Sources
🌐 The original article is in Azerbaijani; the official sources are available in Azerbaijani.
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