Mobile first indexing by google

Hi @robertkun
thank you for opening a thread.
For simplicity let’s assume we are speaking about the page https://yoursite.com/page-example/

Theoretically, if all works as expected:

1) Only logged-in users can see https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/. This means that Google should not be aware of https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/
2) The mobile version of https://yoursite.com/page-example/ is still https://yoursite.com/page-example/ but seen on mobile devices (mobile phones and tablets). The page https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/ doesn’t exist for the public.
3) The mobile version should have the same title and description as the desktop version.

Google should not be able to see the page https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/ excluding these cases:
– You have somewhere a link that points to https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/
– The page https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/ is in a sitemap

Before investigating deeper, can you confirm that you don’t have any internal link to https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/ and that private page isn’t in any sitemap?

About point 3, can you tell me how are you adding title and description? If you do it with a plugin, can you tell me please which one? So I can reproduce the issue and check it.

Hi Jose,

To answer your questions. I do not have any internal links pointing to the mobile URL. I also made sure and doublechecked that I dont have any mobile URL’s in the sitemap.

I am using Yoast SEO to organize the meta titles and descriptions.

I hope this is enough information for you at this point.

Hi @robertkun
thank you for the information.

I’ve tested Yoast SEO and done some tests. On my installation, I have done and seen as following.

I create a page (desktop), I set the meta description “Meta description example”.
I create the mobile version of that page.
The created mobile page inherits the same meta description “Meta description example”.
Then I change the meta description on mobile with “Meta description example modified on mobile”.
Then visiting the page on the desktop I see “Meta description example”, on mobile I see “Meta description example modified on mobile”.
Then I change the meta description on the desktop version with “Meta description example modified on desktop”.
Visiting the page on desktop I see “Meta description example modified on desktop”. Visiting on mobile I see “Meta description example modified on mobile”.

So, on my installation with Yoast SEO I see that what I set on desktop I see it on desktop and what I set on mobile I see it on mobile. And after creating the mobile version, the Yoast SEO settings are inherited from the desktop version.

If on your installation it works in a different way, please give me the list of your plugins and the theme name.

Then I’ve tested some plugins together with Specific Content For Mobile, and I have seen something strange when WooCommerce is active.
With WooCommece the page https://yoursite.com/page-example-mobile/ is visible also for not logged-in users, even if that page is private.
I don’t know if you also have WooCommmerce, if so, please let me know.
In any case, I’m still investigating this issue and I still don’t exclude that it could occur also with other plugins. I will let you know as soon as I find the cause and solution.

Hello Jose, and thanks for your extensive reply. I have the same results as you describe, when viewing the page source. When doing so its all working correct.

The problem becomes clear however the moment i put the desktop URL in google webmaster inspection tool. It will show the mobile version of the meta information. I waited a few days and saw the actual results in google reflecting the above.

This is what i did, maybe you can reproduce it:

#1 I made a desktop page, to then make a mobile version of that page.
#2 I created a Yoast meta title and description for the desktop page, i left the mobile version meta title and description empty.
#3 I created a canonical URL within the mobile page, pointing to the desktop URL.
#4 I used the desktop URL within google webmaster inspection tool, and saw the mobile meta title and description showing up
#5 awaited a few days and google will show this mobile tag in the actual result page.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by robertkun.

Hi @robertkun
thank you very much for the information.
Honestly, until now I haven’t thought the scenario you have described, but I realize it may be very frequent.
The user has the possibility to set different meta tags for desktop and mobile.
Let’s say that the system gives you the possibility to do it wrong, but also to do it right.

I suppose Google is scanning the page using a mobile user agent.

In my opinion, the user should have the responsibility to decide if the meta tags can be different for the mobile version. But I should add a warning when the mobile meta tags are different than the desktop meta tags.

Do you think a warning would be enough, or do you think the plugin should force the same meta tags for mobile and desktop? In a future version, in the same warning, I could also add a button to automatically copy the desktop meta tags to the mobile meta tags, but I would always let the user decide.

I’m interested in your opinion as a user of the plugin.

From a SEO perspective you do not want to have discrepancies between the meta information on mobile and desktop page, from what i understood. But then again SEO is not my specialization so if anyone with a SEO background can confirm, that would be great. I am just referring to this article by google:

https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing

I guess you could perhaps give the user a checkbox option, and when its value is set to checked the meta information from desktop will be automatically sourced into mobile. That is if you want the desktop version to still be the leading source for mobile.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by robertkun.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by robertkun.

Hi @robertkun

I’m working on a new version to give the possibility to chose between:
– Allow mobile versions having their own metadata
– Synchronize desktop and mobile metadata

The last option means that if you change metadata on the desktop, the same values will be written on the mobile metadata. When you change metadata on mobile, the same metadata will be written on the related desktop version.

These options will be related to all kinds of metadata, not only regarding SEO. As a default, you will have “Allow mobile versions having their own metadata”.

Then, for Yoast SEO and other popular SEO plugins, you will have dedicated options. As a default, you will have synchronization between mobile and desktop SEO metadata. But you will be able to allow different metadata if you want changing the settings.
I think better to give as default the best practice but take into account all cases.

I can’t say when it will be ready. I think 1 week.
Until then, remember to check the mobile metadata.

Thats great news Jose ( and sorry for my late reply ).
From my end the pages are all showing correct in google now. I think we can mark this issue as solved, unless you want to wait for your new version update to be ready ??

HI @robertkun
sorry to me for my late reply too ??

The new version 0.1.4 is ready and gives now the possibility to decide the synchronization between desktop and mobile metadata.

You have an option for general metadata, and when Yoast SEO or other popular SEO plugins are installed, you have additional options for the SEO metadata, that as default are synchronized.

This means that when you save metadata in the mobile version, the same metadata will be saved in the desktop version, and when you save metadata in the desktop version, the same metadata will be saved in the mobile version.

Thanks Jose. I will update the plugin and use this feature on my pages. Will also rate and review this plugin after this has been done. Great work!

Jose, I noticed that unfortunately on page front-end editing with WP bakery pagebuilder the new update is giving some issues; on occasions i am not able to load the mobile page with WP bakery. At these times i am only able to edit pages back-end. This is not related to the problem in this topic, so i will create a new one and mark this one as resolved.