Is Mobile-First Indexing Responsible for Recent Algorithm Updates?

[JoyHawkins]

This is a question that came up recently on a webinar I spoke on and has been brought up quite a bit on Twitter.

John Mueller confirmed the recent updates are not due to mobile-first indexing:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1049907821926600705

This aligns with what we've seen thusfar. Have you seen any sites that show clear increases/decreases that you would attribute to mobile-first indexing?

 

[robinlmay]

Hey Joy!

This is interesting, because the sites I saw (and studied) this week for the ‘bounce back’ in rankings from oct 6-7-8 saw jumps in mobile rankings. Some desktop/local as well but the majority of them were all mobile rankings/increases brining things back very close to the pre Aug 1 major core update.

I know John today stated via Twitter they were not related to Mobile, but the information I have eluded to other conclusions.

I’ve been eluding to Google running multiple algorithms and split testing results with all the volatility and turbulence since Aug 1. I’m still trying to assess and dig into whether they were site wide impacts, or specific URLs on sites that saw either increases or decreases in rankings and position.

Very puzzling me

 

[Dan Foland]

It looks like John Mueller doubled down again today saying the updates are totally unrelated to mobile-first indexing:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1050405881098235906

 

[robinlmay]

It looks like John Mueller doubled down again today saying the updates are totally unrelated to mobile-first indexing:

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1050405881098235906

I saw this too.. John's reply. I was just adding to Joy that sites I saw take hits (or gain) were on the mobile side after the Oct 6-7-8 turbulence.. and I had 80+ sites to draw data/insights from.. I believe John, it was just weird that the impacts I saw (or gains as I explained) countered his comments.