Factors that determine mobile search results ranking

Most of the businesses and marketers are aware of the importance in having a mobile-friendly website. However not many are aware of the key factors that differentiate mobile search ranking results and desktop search ranking results. Businesses create responsive websites and keep track of only the desktop rankings.

Let’s take a close look at factors that determine mobile search ranking results.

Speed of website

The site speed is a key technical component that influences mobile search rankings. The top ten websites ranked for mobile searches takes an average of just 1 second or slightly more to load. Make use of PageSpeed Insights tool for ensuring the site loads quickly for users.

HTML5 instead of Flash

Gone are the days when Flash played a vital role in determining the mobile search results and rankings. Nowadays, HTML5 is finding more interest among businesses. It is the best time for you to make use of HTML5 for your website instead of Flash for better mobile search rankings and results.

Focus on branding

Including keywords in domains played a vital role in the rankings during previous years. But the latest report suggests keywords in domains not making a significant impact as expected. It is better to focus on branding and not keywords while choosing the domain name.

Rearranging the lists

Most of the high-ranking mobile pages use rearranged lists compared to their desktop sites. Try using bulleted points to make the content more readable for site visitors. Also include only limited number of items that are relevant within mobile-designed websites.

Place internal links conveniently

Even though the number of websites using more number of internal links is increasing significantly, it is still less compared to desktop websites. Ensure the internal links are placed in such a way that mobile users can click on those links comfortably.

Fewer Images

Most of the best ranking mobile websites consists of only fewer images compared to their desktop websites. Ensure the images are less and also optimized for faster loading within browsers.

Number of keywords in mobile content

Keywords within the mobile content have increased by a big margin for the year 2015 compared to previous years. However it is lower compared to the number of keywords used for desktop websites.

Word Count

Nowadays mobile websites also have content word count of atleast 700 to 800 words which is less compared to 1200 words and more in desktop sites. Mobile websites demand shorter content, but it should be comprehensive enough for site visitors to understand clearly.

Including terms related to main keywords

Most of the high-ranking mobile-designed websites makes use of terms that are closely related to the main keywords in the web page. Whenever most of the aspects in a topic are included, closely related terms with the main keywords would be naturally included.

Number of social shares

Reports suggest the mobile-designed websites that are ranking higher are also found to have higher number of social shares too. High-ranking mobile-designed website content usually receives more clicks and visibility and thereby leads to more social shares.