Correct.

Google has been telling people this for a number of years so it shouldn’t be a surprise. There was a period when they added a ‘mobile friendly’ message to the snippets in the SERPS.

20 hours ago, GrahamUK33 said:

Would that mean the website is then demoted as it is not using the today's best practices?

I don't think you'll get demoted per say, more responsive sites will perform better. 

Quote

The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.

Source Google.

If your website is responsive then according to google ranking policy your website will be ranked higher but if the website is not responsive then there exists a issue with mobile SEO. Now a days people prefers to use mobile phone so your mobile view of the website matters more.

1 hour ago, Dezvolta said:

If your website is responsive then according to google ranking policy your website will be ranked higher but if the website is not responsive then there exists a issue with mobile SEO.

That is not correct. Google has never said this. What Google has suggested is sites that deliver a poor UX on a mobile phone may not rank as well as similar sites that have a better mobile UX.

So you may have a responsive site but if it's slow and awkward to use on a phone you may lose ranking.

I always heard it depended on where the search happens. There are now two indexes. One for mobile and one for desktop.

There is only one index. But what you see depends on the device you are using, where you are, your search history, the time of day, what site you have been looking at recently and a zillion other things.

The results are very rarely the same for two people.

15 minutes ago, fisicx said:

There is only one index. But what you see depends on the device you are using, where you are, your search history, the time of day, what site you have been looking at recently and a zillion other things.

The results are very rarely the same for two people.

Like searches "X near me"

Indeed. Except of course Google already knows where you are so you don't even need to add the location to your search.

I've been using google maps more and more for searches on my phone. Much simpler as I can get the directions to the place I want to be.

I thought there were two indexes now. Or coming up soon.

3 minutes ago, Seth said:

I thought there were two indexes now. Or coming up soon.

Nope. Don't know where you heard this but there is only one index. It just happens to be a 'mobile-first' index. There will be a bit of a transition but Google has done this many times before.

On SearchEngineLand.com and SearchEngineJournal.com. But I could have misread.

 

 

Google wants to provide the best results to their users so if your website is mobile responsive Google will give priority to your website in search results. As a user it is good because I also don't like the desktop version of a website on my mobile. Yes, I'm agree with you that you will have some business if you are offering web design services.

5 hours ago, hikebranding said:

Google wants to provide the best results to their users so if your website is mobile responsive Google will give priority to your website in search results.

No it won't.

Read up on Google's 'mobile first' policy and you will understand why.

Hey, I've had a read and I'm not convinced as no citation to Googles "Mobile-First Index";

4 hours ago, Pharsau said:

Hey, I've had a read and I'm not convinced as no citation to Googles "Mobile-First Index";

Suggest you do some research on 'core web vitals'

I've had a read and I'm not convinced as no citation to Googles "Mobile-First Index"

1 hour ago, Pansysca said:

I've had a read and I'm not convinced as no citation to Googles "Mobile-First Index"

Are you a mate of @Pharsau who said:

On 9/27/2020 at 6:13 PM, Pharsau said:

Hey, I've had a read and I'm not convinced as no citation to Googles "Mobile-First Index";

 

This thread was really informative for me. Got some new tips....