While mobile has become an evident part of our lives over the last couple of years, this shouldn’t result in the neglect of desktops. Even though SEO strategies for mobile and desktop follow the same basic principles and best practices, there are nuances and differences that need to be considered in your overall business strategy.
One of the biggest issues is seeing your website rank differently on one device than another. As a marketer, you might be wondering if you rank No.1 for a keyword on mobile, it should show as such on your desktop too, right? In reality, that’s not what happens.
Why Do The Rankings Differ?
Before getting started on how to differentiate keyword rankings on mobile and desktop, it’s first crucial to acknowledge the why and the what: why they are different and how it defines your SEO strategy.
It’s important to understand that desktop and mobile searches use different algorithms for ranking. At the end of the day, Google wants to make sure to provide the best user experience for its searchers irrespective of the device they are using. This refers to creating a bespoke device-centric experience and for doing that, we need to dive deeper into user intent behaviour.
What You Should Know About User Intent?
User intent differs from device to device. This is essential when considering how far along the funnel a user has been there for. It’s a general strategy but overall mobile users are mostly closer to the transaction stage of the funnel, while desktop users are usually forwarded towards the informational phase.
It’s easy to understand user intent on mobile by getting to know the local search prevalence strategy. If a user is searching for a product or service on mobile, it is said to be local. But if users are searching for a product or service on the desktop, they are more likely to be surfing through non-location certified eCommerce sites.
We need to consider the types of conversions which will occur on each device through touch. Users on mobile are more likely to call the business, by just tapping onto the number that gets displayed in the local map pack section. In contrast, desktop users would be more drawn towards typing out an email or submitting a contact form.
Different Rankings Tools You Should Consider
Rankings are crucial for any business to become visible no matter the device. You can record the rankings for both desktop and mobile the traditional manual way, but no one has time for that. That’s why any good SEO tool that’s worth it will help you to track both desktop and mobile rankings separately. We list down some of our favorites:
- SEMRush is a personal favorite among all digital marketers in the case of fancy SEO tools. It provides an elusive breakdown of mobile vs desktop results along with tablet if you’re interested and displays the mobile-friendly percentage results for your domain link.
- SearchMetrics provides Desktop vs. Mobile metrics in terms of visibility, detailed individual scores for desktop and mobile along with overlap metrics showcasing how many keyword search results appear in exactly the same position for both.
- Moz lets you track the same rankings metrics for both the desktop and mobile platforms. You can try to filter by labels and locations to dig in deep into the data and analytics of the rankings.
- Google Search Console When looking at your search analytics,you have the option to filter devices by comparing mobile with desktop. Even if you do have access to an SEO tool that allows you to do comparison analysis, it’s definitely still worth checking in on your Search Console insights.
How To Differentiate Your Strategies?
After you have got your mobile and desktop rankings in place, then you need to implement your strategies across both devices. Below mentioned quick tips can help:
- Different mobile and desktop-specific searches for your keyword research
- Facilitate voice search for mobile devices
- Consider using Accelerated Mobile Pages whenever required
- Conduct a mobile SEO audit on your website
- Incorporate mobile vs desktop into your tracking and reporting metrics
- Redo your content strategy to ensure you are able to rank well on both mobile and desktop optimized content.
As the best SEO Agency in Singapore, we have a team of Internet marketing professionals who know the right chords to get your website rank high in Google. It may take some time and consideration but our team has worked many wonders for our clients in the past. We surely can do the same for you. Contact us today @ +65 91042042 to start ranking in the SERPs — no matter what device your business is using!