Beyond user behaviors and engagement, we looked at how this mobile dominance was already affecting Google’s search results.
Our analysis of the 50,000 most popular search queries in the United States revealed some signs of what’s in store for mobile SERP winners and losers.
URL and Domain Deviations: How Many Pages and Sites Are Losing Visibility in Mobile Search?
In mobile search results, 8% of pages belong to m-dot domains, which are sites that are specifically designed for mobile and exist on a separate subdomain. This implies that most of the sites in our dataset are simply mobile-friendly.
This does not mean, however, that they have managed to maintain their positions in the SERPs between mobile and desktop devices.
The image below shows how many desktop pages lost their top spot to mobile:
Of all the pages that appear in the SERPs
for thekeywords analyzed, only 11% maintained the same ranking in both desktop and mobile searches. If we take the same criterion at the poland telegram data domain level, this figure increases to 17%.
Additionally, 31% of URLs and 8% of domains completely disappeared from Google search results when viewed from a mobile device*:
The takeaway here is that a loss of top rankings on mobile will have a much more dramatic impact on traffic than on desktop, simply because of the reduced real estate available on a mobile device’s screen.
*The difference in the number of domains and URLs disappearing could be explained by the fact that some have a mobile version and a desktop version of the same page, but with different URLs.
SERP Features
We also analyzed Google search results on mobile and desktop to detect any changes in the frequency of appearance of certain SERP features:
Device choice doesn’t seem to matter for Featured, Local Pack, and More Questions Asked, but desktop users are twice as likely to see a Google Ad and Featured Snippet, while mobile users see 12.5x more images and 3x more videos in organic searches.
Key elements to consider in the era of “Mobile-First”
Desktop may have seen a bit of a tamra kennedy ceo resurgence in 2020, but our search experiences are only headed in one direction: mobile. There are three actions you can take for the future of mobile ( you can explore mobile-first indexing in more detail in our explainer ).
1. Gain insights into your competitors’ and industry’s traffic trends
Use tools like Semrush Traffic Analytics to identify market averages and compare them to the competition. If most of the key players in your niche are getting 60% of their traffic from mobile, but you’re only getting 30%, check your site for potential issues like slow loading speed or poor site architecture.
2. Regularly assess your own mobility performance and take prompt action as necessary
Use Semrush Position Tracking to get daily updates on your mobile ranking data for keywords in a target location. By monitoring unique metrics like database d visibility (based on your SERP positions and CTR estimates) and share of voice (visibility + search volume and traffic estimates for a keyword), you can track how your online presence is changing and react accordingly to stay ahead of the competition.
3. Ensure multiple touchpoints across devices
Don’t assume that users will only engage with you on one device. In reality, they’ll likely use both mobile and desktop during their purchase journey. Optimize for mobile and make it easy for users to switch to desktop to complete a purchase by allowing them to save their carts, for example.