Mobile Indexing in Google Limbo
On October 16, 2016, Google promised it was soon to be rolling out a mobile-first search index. But as of now, all the folks scrambling to get their businesses ready for this major renovation are waiting in a state of limbo with no date in sight. But, the Director of Search Strategy at Pi Datametrics noticed that certain mobile sites were being dropped out of Google and replaced with their desktop versions. Although this switch seemed unprecedented, but at Online Site Exposure we believe it may be a sign that the launch may be coming soon.
Interstitial Speculation
Some tech gurus are suggesting that this turbulence is a result of Google’s recently instituted penalty against intrusive mobile interstitials, but this connection was ruled out after it was determined that there was no link between the sites that were dropped and the presence of interstitials. When a concerned user Tweeted Google’s webmaster trends analyst, John Mueller, he responded by saying that this issue may be a result of the way the sites were being managed, and not because of any actions by the company. This left all those still waiting in the wings for the big change wondering if that were true or just a smoke screen to cover preparations for the launch.
IT’s Sherlock Holmes
To get to the bottom of this mystery, director Glynn Davies conducted an investigation to determine if, in fact, the affected sites contained configuration errors that were then being “punished” by Google’s undercover switch. However, the results showed that this was not the case. Although some sites were configured incorrectly, other affected sites were properly configured, leaving the detectives to continue their search for the cause. ASOS, a major fashion retailer, whose site was affected, reported that its mobile and desktop sites were behaving strangely even though they were correctly configured. Finally, on February 8th, Google’s Mueller tweeted a confirmation that there was, indeed, a “quirk” that occurred but was unintentional.
The Glitch Continues
At the time of this report, the glitch is still unresolved. This only makes all of these fluctuations even more mysterious, mainly because no one seems to be able to figure out what is really going on. According to several watchdogs, it could be that this issue is totally unrelated to the anticipated mobile-first indexing and instead related to any number of unrelated algorithm updates conducted throughout the year. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing the source of these issues. But at Online Site Exposure we believe it is reasonable to speculate that because this glitch specifically affects mobile sites, it could very well be connected to Google’s testing the new index prior to its implementation. Until then, we all remain in limbo.