Mobile First Timeline - When Will Google Move The Remainder of Websites?

[mirabile]

A common question from anxious webmasters who have separate/smaller mobile websites is:  _"Will Google move my site over to mobile-first, even though I'm not "ready" yet?" _It's not an easy question to answer.  Here's what we know so far:

• Google is currently already migrating websites over that have a strong correlation between mobile and desktop content

• Google is taking the migration process very slowly, and for now, is not migrating sites over that are not "ready".

• Google has not announced any firm timeline for when they plan to migrate the remainder of all websites.

In answering this question, I typically mention all of the above to help allay any fears. I then state that it could maybe be anywhere from one year to several years before the process is over - but with a huge disclaimer that this is pure speculation, and that only Google knows for sure. Lastly, I reiterate that Google in the meantime is strongly encouraging webmasters w mobile sites to ensure that they match the desktop version (URLs, schema, video, metadata, etc).  So the choice is to either to upgrade to responsive/adaptive, or upgrade the mobile site.  This is where the future is going.

STILL - any additional feedback / thoughts / ideas / tips on this are welcome, because I continue to struggle with answering this question for clients.   Thanks!

[bridget.randolph]

So glad if it's useful!

[mirabile]

Wonderful points and advice, thank you Bridget!

[bridget.randolph]

Great question! I love also that you're thinking about how to give support to your clients beyond just answering their literal question -- you're absolutely right that a lot of people are just feeling a bit of anxiety around being "not ready".

My typical response would be very similar to the points you've outlined, and I typically try to offer reassurance that this change isn't necessarily as drastic as it sounds as long as you already have a functional mobile-friendly version of your website. I suspect that part of the question comes from the issue of what Google views as "ready" to migrate versus what the webmaster might feel they need to do before they feel "ready". But as long as your mobile version is performing well and you have all the content accessible and user friendly, I don't think there's a lot to worry about.

I wrote a post for the Moz blog earlier this year to answer some of the FAQs people have about the shift to mobile-first indexing, you might find it helpful either for your own answer to this question or as a resource to share with people who ask you about it: https://moz.com/blog/mobile-first-indexing-seo

[mirabile]

Agreed, one single URL is the ideal. This question is more geared towards webmasters who still have separate (smaller) mobile sites, and are more wondering how long they can get away with it.

[TucsonAZWebDesign]

I'd say the ideal is hide nothing and make all your content load from the same urls. Don't modify the content aside what is done automatically with a responsive framework like Bootstrap or Materialize.

If your clients are using shared hosting and struggle with load times both of those frameworks have options to only implement the absolute minimum for the features the customer wants, and for the extreme minimalist "Fluidity" is a mere 115 bytes.