Mobile First & Desktop Ranking
The weekly SEO monitoring often shows the same picture for B2B websites: The SEO metrics for desktop are passable, the keyword ranking for mobile moderate. What online marketing managers observe here is not worrying, but may have something to do with user distribution.
Even if Google's guiding principle of mobile first applies, different ranking distributions for desktop and mobile are often related to user behavior. On B2B websites, the majority of traffic is generated via desktop devices. Google recommends optimizing all website elements, technical specifications and usability for each device and setting websites to mobile-first indexing. This is because, according to Google, more than 50% of traffic comes from mobile devices, measured in terms of all websites.
This is because Google only considers content that is available in the mobile website version. In mobile search, the ranking is based on this and depends heavily on the mobile friendliness. In an inquiry to Google Search Central SEO Office Hours, John Mueller (Google) did not answer the topic conclusively, but as always gives hints for SEOs and online marketing specialists. However, he pointed out that ranking and indexing of content must be considered separately. After the switch to mobile-first indexing, only a data comparison between the mobile and desktop version is created.
Once the content is in Google's index, es then depends on user interaction with the content. Page speed for mobile and desktop can also be responsible for how desktop and mobile ranking values develop. This may ultimately play a role in the deviation of the values. This is because interaction via the mobile version may be more difficult.
Separate SEO optimization for desktop or mobile?
The different ranking values can therefore be explained by the search intent. Experience shows that users with mobile devices look for results with a local reference. Addresses and quickly adaptable content are more in the foreground. Desktop users have a different search intent because they are looking for more in-depth content, for example.
The consideration of optimizing websites separately according to the search intents is therefore obvious. After all, es also has deviations between mobile and desktop, which search results Google displays depending on the end device. A separate SEO optimization for B2B websites, which predominantly receive desktop traffic, is however not purposeful according to John Mueller. This is because the ranking values have nothing to do with technical aspects of indexing. In addition, Google reserves the right to display the appropriate search results for the individual user, depending on the device.
Conclusion: The better the content, user experience and usability for each device, the more equal the ranking for mobile and desktop will be. Technical settings need to be adjusted only moderately. Rather, es depends on understanding the customer journey and user behavior.
Author: Friederike Baer