Google delays ranking all sites based on their mobile version to March 2021
Google has delayed the date when it will start ranking all websites based on their mobile versions. At the start of March, the company said it would switch to mobile-first indexing this September. The company now plans to make the transition in March 2021.
“We realize that in these uncertain times, it’s not always easy to focus on work as otherwise, so we’ve decided to extend the timeframe to the end of March 2021,” the company said, alluding to the coronavirus pandemic as the main reason for the delay.
Moving to mobile-first indexing is something Google has been working on for the past half-decade. The search giant started experimenting with the approach in 2016. As a sign of how far things have come since then, as of last year the company started indexing all new domains based on their phone-oriented sites by default. Despite the delay, site creators will want to optimize their websites for mobile devices as soon as possible.
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