Mobile-first indexing: the questions we get asked most

We end up explaining this on discovery calls often enough that it deserved writing down. The questions about mobile-first indexing that come up most often on our calls.

Search work compounds slowly, which is why it gets abandoned about two months before it would have paid off. The version that survives contact with a real deadline is the simple one.

Do we need to care about this?

The mobile version of your page is the one that gets indexed. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Budget a little time for it every quarter and it never becomes a project of its own.

Can it wait until after launch?

Occasionally. More often the post-launch version costs several times the pre-launch one. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped.

How do we know it is working?

Parity between mobile and desktop content matters. Where this goes wrong is almost never a lack of knowledge. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

In practice

Technical fixes remove obstacles; content earns the position. Both are needed and they are not interchangeable. Three things worth confirming about mobile-first indexing before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Parity between mobile and desktop content matters — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

The point is not perfection, it is knowing which of these you have consciously chosen to skip.