It seems the world is going mobile, with many people using mobile phones on a daily basis, and a
large user base searching on
Google's mobile search page.
However, as a webmaster, running a mobile site and tapping into the mobile search audience isn't
easy. Mobile sites not only use a different format from normal desktop site, but the management
methods and expertise required are also quite different. This results in a variety of new
challenges. As a mobile search engineer, it's clear to me that while many mobile sites were
designed with mobile viewing in mind, they weren't designed to be search friendly. I'd like to
help ensure that your mobile site is also available for users of mobile search.
Here are troubleshooting tips to help ensure that your site is properly crawled and indexed:
Verify that your mobile site is indexed by Google
If your web site doesn't show up in the results of a
Google mobile search
even using the
site: operator,
it may be that your site has one or both of the following issues:
Googlebot may not be able to find your site.
Googlebot, our crawler, must crawl your site before it can be included in our search index.
If you just created the site, we may not yet be aware of it. If that's the case, create a
Mobile Sitemap
and submit it to Google to inform us to the site's existence. A Mobile Sitemap can be
submitted using Google Webmaster Tools,
in the same way as with a standard Sitemap.
Googlebot may not be able to access your site.
Some mobile sites refuse access to anything but mobile phones, making it impossible for
Googlebot to access the site, and therefore making the site unsearchable. Our crawler for
mobile sites is Googlebot-Mobile. If you'd like your site crawled, please allow
any User-agent including Googlebot-Mobile to access your site. You
should also be aware that Google may change its User-agent information at any time without
notice, so it is not recommended that you check if the User-agent exactly matches
Googlebot-Mobile (which is the string used at present). Instead, check whether the
User-agent HTTP header contains the string Googlebot-Mobile.
You can also
use DNS Lookups to verify Googlebot.
Verify that Google can recognize your mobile URLs
Once Googlebot-Mobile crawls your URLs, we then check for whether the URL is viewable on a mobile
device. Pages we determine aren't viewable on a mobile phone won't be included in our mobile site
index (although they may be included in the regular web index). This determination is based on a
variety of factors, one of which is the "DTD (Doc Type Definition)" declaration. Check that your
mobile-friendly URLs' DTD declaration is in an appropriate mobile format such as XHTML Mobile
or Compact HTML. If it's in a compatible format, the page is eligible for the mobile search
index. For more information, see the
Mobile Webmaster Guidelines.
If you have any question regarding mobile site, post your question to our
Webmaster Help Forum
and webmasters around the world as well as we are happy to help you with your problem.
Posted by Jun Mukai, Software Engineer, Mobile Search Team
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis post focuses on ensuring your mobile site is indexed by Google for better visibility in mobile search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTroubleshooting tips are provided to help webmasters confirm their site's accessibility and indexation by Googlebot-Mobile.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle's ability to recognize mobile URLs is crucial, with factors like DTD declaration influencing mobile index eligibility.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters are encouraged to use the Mobile Sitemap and Google Webmaster Tools for proper site submission and management.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWhile the blog post may contain outdated information, the core principles of mobile SEO remain relevant.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmasters should ensure mobile sites are indexed by Google. To do so, create and submit a Mobile Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools. Allow `Googlebot-Mobile` access to the site, using a partial match on the user-agent string. Ensure mobile URLs are viewable on mobile devices, confirmed through the DTD declaration being in XHTML Mobile or Compact HTML format. If issues are faced, ask the Webmaster Help Forum.\n"],null,["# Help Google index your mobile site\n\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).\n\nFriday, November 13, 2009\n\n\n*This post was largely translated from our\n[Japanese Webmaster Central Blog](/search/blog/2009/11/help-google-index-your-mobile-site?hl=ja).*\n\n\nIt seems the world is going mobile, with many people using mobile phones on a daily basis, and a\nlarge user base searching on\n[Google's mobile search page](https://www.google.com/m/).\nHowever, as a webmaster, running a mobile site and tapping into the mobile search audience isn't\neasy. Mobile sites not only use a different format from normal desktop site, but the management\nmethods and expertise required are also quite different. This results in a variety of new\nchallenges. As a mobile search engineer, it's clear to me that while many mobile sites were\ndesigned with mobile viewing in mind, they weren't designed to be search friendly. I'd like to\nhelp ensure that your mobile site is also available for users of mobile search.\n\nHere are troubleshooting tips to help ensure that your site is properly crawled and indexed:\n\nVerify that your mobile site is indexed by Google\n-------------------------------------------------\n\n\nIf your web site doesn't show up in the results of a\n[Google mobile search](https://www.google.com/m/)\neven using the\n[`site:` operator](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site),\nit may be that your site has one or both of the following issues:\n\n- **Googlebot may not be able to find your site.** Googlebot, our crawler, must crawl your site before it can be included in our search index. If you just created the site, we may not yet be aware of it. If that's the case, create a [Mobile Sitemap](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview) and submit it to Google to inform us to the site's existence. A Mobile Sitemap can be [submitted using Google Webmaster Tools](https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=156184), in the same way as with a standard Sitemap.\n- **Googlebot may not be able to access your site.** Some mobile sites refuse access to anything but mobile phones, making it impossible for Googlebot to access the site, and therefore making the site unsearchable. Our crawler for mobile sites is `Googlebot-Mobile`. If you'd like your site crawled, please allow any `User-agent` including `Googlebot-Mobile` to access your site. You should also be aware that Google may change its User-agent information at any time without notice, so it is not recommended that you check if the `User-agent` exactly matches `Googlebot-Mobile` (which is the string used at present). Instead, check whether the `User-agent` HTTP header *contains* the string `Googlebot-Mobile`. You can also [use DNS Lookups to verify Googlebot](/search/blog/2006/09/how-to-verify-googlebot).\n\nVerify that Google can recognize your mobile URLs\n-------------------------------------------------\n\n\nOnce Googlebot-Mobile crawls your URLs, we then check for whether the URL is viewable on a mobile\ndevice. Pages we determine aren't viewable on a mobile phone won't be included in our mobile site\nindex (although they may be included in the regular web index). This determination is based on a\nvariety of factors, one of which is the \"DTD (Doc Type Definition)\" declaration. Check that your\nmobile-friendly URLs' DTD declaration is in an appropriate mobile format such as XHTML Mobile\nor Compact HTML. If it's in a compatible format, the page is eligible for the mobile search\nindex. For more information, see the\n[Mobile Webmaster Guidelines](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing).\n\n\nIf you have any question regarding mobile site, post your question to our\n[Webmaster Help Forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community)\nand webmasters around the world as well as we are happy to help you with your problem.\n\nPosted by Jun Mukai, Software Engineer, Mobile Search Team"]]
