A few years ago, Google began looking at websites through the eyes of a smartphone user when indexing them. The screen size is based on an average of frequently used smartphones. Now, according to several press reports, John Müller from Google announced at a conference that websites that are optimized exclusively for desktop screens will be removed from the Google index from March 2021.
Apparently, his statement referred to scenarios in which two parallel versions of a website exist - a mobile version and one for the desktop. In this case, it would be correct for Google to focus on the mobile rcs data usa version. The trend towards responsive websites has been foreseeable for some time. However, it is questionable whether pure desktop pages will now even be completely removed from the Google index, as can be read in some reports.
Responsive websites can ideally be used equally well on a smartphone, tablet and desktop PC. The page layout automatically adapts to the screen width. Even though the desktop is often declared dead, it is unlikely to die out. It is still indispensable in the office or when preparing your own tax return. Website operators have had more than enough time to adapt their websites to mobile-first indexing.
And there is still enough time until March 2021 to do so if in doubt. Nevertheless, the reports that pure desktop pages are supposedly to be removed from the index without replacement are surprising. After all, there is still a lot of useful content on websites that have not yet been optimized for smartphones - and may not even be optimized for them. Whether this is actually true or whether Müller's statement was taken out of context remains to be seen. In any case, it would be surprising if Google were to remove pure desktop pages from the index completely, because this would result in a large proportion of valuable search results being lost. We do not expect this to happen.