Google uses the mobile version of a page for indexing and ranking. If content exists on desktop but not on mobile, Google does not see it.
Parity checklist
- Same primary content on both versions.
- Same headings and structured data.
- Same meta robots directives, a common failure is
noindexappearing only on the mobile template. - Images and video present with the same alt text and quality.
- Links present in the mobile navigation, not hidden behind a menu that never renders for a crawler.
Responsive design makes this simple
One URL, one HTML document, layout adapting via CSS. Separate mobile sites and dynamic serving are still supported but carry parity risk that responsive design does not.
Alien Road recommends: check the mobile template for accidental content trimming. Truncated descriptions, hidden specification tables and removed FAQ blocks are common on shops, and every one of them is content Google no longer sees. Collapsing content behind an accordion is fine; removing it from the HTML is not.