Google completed its shift to mobile-first indexing in July 2024. That means Google Search primarily crawls and indexes the mobile version of your pages; if key content exists only on desktop (or is blocked/not loadable on mobile), it won’t be used for indexing and rankings. Google for Developers
In Google’s own guidance: keep content parity between desktop and mobile. Different layouts are fine—tabs and accordions on mobile are explicitly OK—but the same primary content must be present on mobile. If mobile has less content than desktop, expect some loss because Google “can’t get as much information” from your page. Google for Developers
Common mobile content gaps (and how they hide your pages)
- Mobile page lacks primary copy found on desktop. Fix by ensuring equal primary content (copy, headings, internal links) on both versions; different UI (tabs/accordions) is fine. Google for Developers
- “Load more” / infinite scroll without search-friendly URLs. Google recommends pagination or incremental loading that exposes distinct, crawlable URLs (use History API where applicable). Otherwise, content may never be discovered. Google for Developers
- Primary content requires user interaction to load. Google won’t trigger clicks/swipes to fetch core content. Avoid on-click fetch for primary text; ensure lazy-loaded elements are visible to Googlebot without interaction. Google for Developers
- Separate mobile URLs (m-dot) misconfigured. Desktop pages redirecting to a single mobile page, mobile error pages, or fragment-only URLs (
#…) lead to missing pages in the index. Google for Developers
What about tabs/accordions?
Content revealed by tabs/accordions is fine in a mobile-first world if it’s already in the HTML/DOM on the mobile page. Google’s documentation even suggests moving content into tabs on mobile rather than removing it. (The issue isn’t the UI; it’s when content isn’t present or only loads after a user action.) Google for Developers
How to test and fix fast
- Parity check: Compare mobile vs desktop for every key template (PLP, PDP, blog, help docs). Ensure headings, copy, schema, internal links, and media exist on mobile. Google for Developers
- Fix infinite scroll / load-more: Provide crawlable, paginated URLs or incremental page loading per Google’s ecommerce and infinite-scroll guidance. Google for Developers
- Avoid interaction-gated content: Don’t require clicks to fetch primary text; verify lazy-loaded content renders for Googlebot Smartphone. Google for Developers
- Verify with Search Console:
- URL Inspection: see how Google crawled a page and whether it’s indexable; request recrawl after fixes. Google Support search.google.com
- Page Indexing report: catch property-wide indexing gaps caused by mobile differences. Google Support
