Google’s Gary Illyes has confirmed that a significant number of sites will be migrated to the mobile-first index in the next month and a half.
Illyes announced Google’s upcoming plans for the mobile-first index while on stage at Pubcon in Austin, Texas.
Announcement – In the next month and a half or so, Google is moving a LOT of sites to mobile first.@methode #Pubcon
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) February 21, 2018
The last official word we heard from Google regarding mobile-first indexing was this past summer, when Google’s John Mueller mentioned it was being rolled out to individual sites that are ready for it.
Since then, we have published a help article with Google’s advice on getting ready for the mobile-first index.
The company initially planned to have all sites migrated to the mobile-first index by early 2018, but it doesn’t look like that goal is going to be met. Moreover, Google has said it will not tell us when migration to the mobile-first index is complete.
However, following Illyes’ keynote at Pubcon, we have learned that the new index may never be fully rolled out to all sites.
It is very likely that Google will never have a complete mobile first index. Why? because some sites are desktop only.@methode #Pubcon
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) February 21, 2018
Currently only a small number of sites have been added to the mobile-first index, and it’s not expected to have an impact on traffic.
Google has started adding sites to the mobile first index, but right now, there aren't very many sites that have been added.
These sites should not have noticed any changes in traffic.@methode #Pubcon
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) February 21, 2018
Savvy site owners can check to see if their site has been added to the mobile-first index by checking server logs and see what is crawling the site most often. If Googlebot mobile is doing most of the crawling, chances are you’re on the mobile-first index.
How to tell if you are on mobile first index – check your server logs to see if Googlebot mobile is crawling you the most.@methode #Pubcon
— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) February 21, 2018
Without manually checking server logs there is no other way to determine if your site has been migrated to the new index, as Google is not notifying webmasters individually. If you’re “ready” for mobile-first indexing, then perhaps your site will be selected in the coming weeks.
