Mobile-first indexing

Mobile-first indexing is the way Google crawls, indexes and evaluates pages — primarily using their mobile version rather than the desktop one. In practice, the content, links and structured data visible on a smartphone determine a page's position in search results. Google switched to this approach by default across the entire web because most traffic now comes from mobile devices.

How mobile-first indexing works

The Googlebot crawler visits a site presenting itself as a mobile browser (a mobile user-agent) and renders the page in a narrow viewport. Whatever it sees in that version is what enters the index and forms the basis of evaluation. The key consequences:

• Content parity — the mobile version must contain the same text, images and headings as the desktop one; hiding content on mobile lowers rankings.
• Structured data and metadata — Schema.org markup, titles and descriptions must be present in both versions.
• Mobile performance — load time and Core Web Vitals are measured on a mobile device.

Mobile-first indexing in practice

To help your site handle mobile indexing well:

1. Use responsive design — a responsive layout is the simplest way to keep content identical across every screen size.
2. Don't strip content on mobile — collapsible accordions are fine, but removing whole sections is not.
3. Optimise speed — fast hosting and a lightweight front end shorten the load time that mobile evaluation depends on.

Solid hosting with a short server response time translates directly into better Core Web Vitals as measured under mobile-first indexing. It's worth remembering that the switch does not create a separate mobile index — there is a single index, but the mobile version is what feeds it content data.