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Smartphone user-agent update by Google coming this April
According to the Google Webmaster blog, “Google is updating their user-agent for the smartphone Googlebot crawler.” Which means changes will take place from an iPhone user-agent to an Android User-Agent. Here is the current smartphone user-agent (source: webmasters.googleblog.com).
And, here is the new smartphone user agent which will begin crawling on April 18, 2016
The new user-agent reflects the development being closer to Chrome than Safari. Moreover, the new user-agents understanding of using newer web technologies will be easy for their renderer.
Google has also confirmed that it will still be crawling from the same set of IP addresses for those who are allowing bots-based IP. This means, that if you don’t watch for the new possible Googlebot IPs closely, it may cause issues. This is because a site can be blocked based on IP rather than user-agent to prevent any spoofed bot from crawling. In addition, Google predicts that websites that have problems with the changes will only look for the specific Googlebot user agent string.
“Our evaluation suggests that this user-agent change should have no effect on 99% of sites. The most common reason a site might be affected is if it specifically looks for a particular Googlebot user-agent string. User-agent sniffing for Googlebot is not recommended and is considered to be a form of cloaking. Googlebot should be treated like any other browser,” As per Google Webmaster Blog
Google also suggests checking your website with Fetch and Render Tool in the search console if you believe that your website might be affected by this new update. If you’ve any questions or suggestions, visit Digital Evolutions, one of the trustworthy web design agency Dubai that not only offers professional web design and development, but also proficient SEO services.
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