Google has for some time prioritized mobile-friendly sites in search results, but it will soon be taking an even bigger step. Search Engine Land reports a keynote address by a Google exec advising that the company will be creating a completely separate mobile index, which will take priority over the original desktop one.

Google is going to create a separate mobile index within months, one that will be the main or “primary” index that the search engine uses to respond to queries. A separate desktop index will be maintained, one that will not be as up-to-date as the mobile index.

The plan reflects the fact that the majority of search traffic now comes from mobile devices, but the presentation raised as many questions as it answered, notes the site …

Since the mobile index is the “primary” index, will it really not be used for any desktop queries? Will it only contain “mobile-friendly” content? How out-of-date will the desktop index be?

Some of those commenting on Twitter expressed concern that search results may end up being less comprehensive, as mobile sites often contain less content than desktop ones.

Sites often remove content and structured data from mobile pages for size. @methode #pubcon — Jennifer Slegg (@jenstar) October 13, 2016

Links will be scarcer on mobile. There will be loss of tokens (words). People put less content on mobile devices. #pubcon — Lisa Barone (@LisaBarone) October 13, 2016

The key takeout for webmasters is to ensure that your mobile site either has identical content to your desktop site, or is already your primary site.

No exact timing is yet known, beyond the statement that the change will occur within ‘months.’

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