Fetch as Google Desktop Render Width?

[Desiree-CP]

What is Google's minimum desktop responsive webpage width?

Fetch as Google for desktop is showing a skinnier version of our responsive page.

[CleverPhD]

Howdy!

TLDR - I would estimate Google bot desktop to run at about about 980 pixels, but there is an easy way to test, just mess around with your site by adjusting the width of the browser and see if you can duplicate what you see in Google fetch and render.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp  97% of browsers have a width of 1024 or greater.  Therefore, if you use that minimum of 1024, your width would be appropriate for pretty much everyone. That said, you might want to go with 980 as the width to account for things like scrolling bars and the fact that most people do not browse in full screen. This is a pretty standard starting point for width.

When you use fetch and render - Google uses one of it's bots depending on the type of page https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6066468?hl=en

When Google talks about responsive design https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/responsive-design it notes, "When the meta viewport element is absent, mobile browsers default to rendering the page at a desktop screen width (usually about 980px, though this varies across devices)."  In other words in some Google documentation they are giving a nod to the 980 pixels being a "standard desktop width"

Having that in mind, I would look at your site and see if you can tell if this jives.  If you have setup the page to look "normal" at greater than 980 pixels, say 1200 pixels, set your width to 1200 pixels in your browser. Then play with the width of the browser and see if you can get it to match what you see in Google fetch and render. If your site looks the same as what you see in fetch and render and your browser is at 980 pixels, then you have a confirmation of the Googlebot desktop viewport size.

You could also setup a simple page and put several images on separate rows that are 950px 980px 1000px 1200px etc wide. Run fetch and render and see what happens, but I like my first suggestion better.

Have fun!

[BlueprintMarketing]

Clever PhD hit the nail on the head his answer Is excellent.