Online marketing is its own ecosystem and ebbs and flows according to Google’s SEO principles. Any changes to these laws are therefore closely followed by many across the world and have the potential to affect how many millions of dollars are spent by companies in the competition to achieve high rankings on Google’s search result pages. Google published one such change not too long ago. According to this latest change, the search engine will no longer index webpages that are simply inaccessible on mobile after July 5, 2024.
However, it is important to understand that this does not mean that Google will not index web pages that are simply not mobile-friendly. It will only omit webpages that refuse to load—or render—on modern smartphones completely. According to Google, this is the final step in the total migration to a mobile-first index for Google Search results. This migration reportedly started close to eight years ago and was rumoured to have reached completion in October 2023. As these slight changes reflect, however, Google Search is still not done with putting down Googlebot Desktop. According to the official statement, Googlebot Desktop can still sometimes be found in server logs for certain webpages and is the result of Google Search crawling for product listings and for Google Jobs.
Given the proliferation and the convenience that mobile phones offer in browning the internet, it is key to creating a positive user experience on monetized/commercial websites. According to Statista, mobile devices accounted for about 58.33% of all global website traffic in Q1 of 2023. Compared to the 31.6% reported in Q1 of 2015, this is a spike in mobile phone use of around 75%. Being optimised for smartphone use is especially important if your website has an e-commerce element to it. Further data from Statista shows that smartphones are responsible for about two-thirds of all online purchases in the first quarter of 2024, in the US alone. These shifts in user behaviour mean that websites are burdened with providing a far more integrated experience on mobile than simply shrinking the webpage down to fit a smaller screen size. Users typically demand easy-to-navigate, responsive, and quick websites. Not meeting these expectations will likely translate into lost sales and opportunities.
Does this mean that website developers and content managers across the world can abandon optimising desktop versions of their websites? According to Senior Search Analyst John Mueller, no. Appearing on a Reddit forum, he elaborated,
“I don’t think it’s the case that you can completely disregard what’s served on the desktop in terms of SEO & related. If you had to pick one and the only reason you’re running the site is for Google SEO, I’d probably pick mobile now, but it’s an artificial decision, sites don’t live in isolation like that, businesses do more than just Google SEO (and TBH I hope you do: a healthy mix of traffic sources is good for peace of mind). And also, if you don’t want to have to make this decision: go responsive.”
So what does ‘going responsive’ mean?
Going responsive or ‘responsive web design’ is the design and development of websites that are compatible across various screen sizes, orientations, and platforms. This involves incorporating flexible layouts and grids, images, and CSS media queries. Doing so replaces the need to create a different version of the same website for each new device or orientation. Doing so may seem like an intuitive response in today’s day and age, but it is important to reiterate that the introduction of all these iterations of websites came about within the last decade or so. A far more interesting question would perhaps be what Google’s gradual shift to mobile will do for businesses that have already spent valuable time and resources identifying what works for their target audience. In an X post, one concerned user asks, “What if you don’t care to cater to mobile users because they don’t come to your website/product on mobile devices? What if your audience is commercial building estimators, with a 98% desktop visitor rate on multiple 48’’ monitors?” To which we can only say, either they evolve with market forces or perish.
(Theruni Liyanage)