SEOzone 2015 - Marcus Tober - Ranking Factors For Mobile And Desktop Search

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Ranking Factors
for Mobile and Desktop Search.
How They Differ and How Mobile Changed
Marcus Tober
Istanbul
27.11.2015

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Founder and CTO of
Searchmetrics
In love with SEO and search
since 2001
Study of computer science
in Berlin, so I‘m the techie!
MARCUS TOBER

Made with love in Berlin
200 passionate people
Innovator in SEO Software & more
since 2005
San Mateo
New York
London
Paris

Our secret sauce is our software

Industry’s biggest data base
Mobile Visibility Local Mobile Rankings
Search Volume
Device Distribution
Not only desktop data…

The Future is Now!

Let‘s go back in time….

An SEO walks into a bar…
bars, beer garden, lounge,
hangout hole, night club,
mini bar, bar stool, tavern,
pub, beer, whine, whiskey…

The „old-fashioned“ way to do it

Today

SEO VISIBILITY

SEO Visibility - ehow.com

0
500.000
1.000.000
1.500.000
2.000.000
26.06.2011 18.12.2011 10.06.2012 26.05.2013 17.11.2013 11.05.2014 02.11.201402.01.2011 02.12.2012
SEO Visibility
Stock
SEOVisibility
Time
Industry‘s Standard for Online Performance

Keyword A
SERP 1
Keyword AB
SERP 2
Keyword AC
SERP 3
Keyword AD
SERP 4
Keyword AE
SERP 5
3.
5.
2.
9.
3.
Landing Page 1 Landing Page 2 Landing Page 3 Landing Page 4 Landing Page 5
Content A Content AB Content AC
Content
AD
Content AE
12.16.
2005

2015 Keyword A
SERP 1
Keyword AB
SERP 2
Keyword AC
SERP 3
Keyword AD
SERP 4
Keyword AE
SERP 5
3.
5.
2.
9.
3.
Content A
Content AB
Content AC
Content AD
Content AE
optimizes content
doesn‘t
optimize
Landing Page 1
Landing Page 2
Content AD
Content AE

STOP – what about this?
users still type keywords in here…

ANSWER: Hummingbird
„precise and fast“

HUMMINGBIRD Pre-
Query
SERP
C
SERP
A
SERP
B
SER
P Y
SER
P J
SER
P I
SER
P H
SER
P G
SERP F
SER
P L
SER
P K
SER
P M
SER
P N
SER
P O
SER
P P
SER
P Q
SER
P R
SER
P S
SER
P T
SER
P U
SER
P V
SER
P Z
SER
P X

HUMMINGBIRD
SER
P R
Post-
Query
SERP
C
SERP
A
SERP
B
SER
P Y
SER
P J
SER
P I
SER
P H
SER
P G
SERP F
SER
P L
SER
P K
SER
P M
SER
P N
SER
P O
SER
P P
SER
P Q
SER
P S
SER
P T
SER
P U
SER
P V
SER
P X
SER
P Z

Example
How Hummingbird influences
Search Results

boiledegg hard boiledegg recipe
how long does it take
to boilan egg

what is the best method
for hard boiled eggs
Related KWs
November 2015
how to cook the
perfect boiled egg

89%
of Domains are literally
INVISIBLE
11% of Domains
have SEO Visibility >5/>10
DOMAIN VISIBILITY
DOMAIN VISIBILITY

thekitchn.com/how-to-boil-eggs-perfectly-every-time…
Keyword Density „boiled eggs“

HOLISTIC WEBSITES

HOLISTIC WEBSITES
464 #1

SEO Visibility - thekitchn.com

20142011 2015
Image
Image
Image
Image
Content
Content
Image
Video
Content/
Structure

DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH

Correlation ≠ Causation

Correlation vs Averages
𝜌"#$% = 0.00
𝜌"#$) = 0.00
Ø = 96%
Ø = 20%
Share / Count of…
Ranking

RANKING FACTORS 2015
Rank Correlation Top 30
Google.com

DISRUPTION OF TECHNOLOGY
Mobile
Desktop Laptop
Tablet
WORK ENTERTAINMENT ALWAYS

Game over…?

In fact, more Google searches
take place on mobile
devices than on computers in 10
countries including the US and
Japan.”
Google: May 05, 2015
“
Rise of Mobile

Let‘s go back in time!

71%
68%
29%
32%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
After
Before
mobile-friendly
not mobile-friendly
*Basis: Searchmetrics Research Cloud SERPs 1-3
Share of Mobile-Friendly URLs
Mobilegeddon,
April 21st, 2015

Example 1
Mobilegeddon Recoveries

Reddit.com - April 2015
?

-36%
Mobile
Update

SAME URL ≠
Mobile
Desktop
Rankings
…1…
…2…
…3…
…4…
…5…
…6…
…7…
…8…
…9…
…10…

September 2015: still not mobile-friendly
But:

MOBILE SEPARATE URL =
MobileDesktop
Rankings
…1…
…2…
…3…
…4…
…5…
…6…
…7…
…8…
…9…
…10…

Mobile
Update
MOBILE SEPARATE URL
Recovered!

Example 2
Mobilegeddon Recoveries

-31%

April 2015
Not mobile-friendly
September 2015
mobile-friendly
last.fm
xRecovered!

But what are the differences
between Desktop and Mobile?

Mobile vs. Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
Mobile Desktop
≠
searchmetrics.com/mobile2015 www.searchmetrics.com/us2015

Bullet Points / Lists
§ Text
§ Text
§ Text
1. Text
2. Text
3. Text
Unordered List Ordered List

Presence of Unordered List
65%
67%
69%
71%
73%
75%
77%
79%
81%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.08
MOBILE

Presence of Unordered List
35%
40%
45%
50%
55%
60%
65%
70%
75%
80%
85%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.08
MOBILE
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.07
~30%

Structure of elements: Mobile vs Desktop

Number of Interactive Elements
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
Menus, Buttons, etc.
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.10
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.08
MOBILE

Ø Font Size Entire Page
12,00
12,50
13,00
13,50
14,00
14,50
15,00
15,50
16,00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
POST Mobilegeddon PRE Mobilegeddon Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌89:; = 0.03
𝜌8=> = 0.02
MOBILE

Browsing is different: Mobile vs Desktop
URL / Tabs
URL / Tabs?

Browsing is different: Mobile vs Desktop

LINKS?
Where we‘re going, we don‘t need LINKS.

Number of Backlinks
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.28
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.11
MOBILE
ØDesktop = 2.500
ØMobile = 1.500

Backlinks: Mobile vs Desktop

Number of Internal Links
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.09
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.03
MOBILE
ØDesktop = 132
ØMobile = 86

Sitespeed
0,95
1,00
1,05
1,10
1,15
1,20
1,25
1,30
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.04
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.08
MOBILE

Word Count
0
200
400
600
800
1.000
1.200
1.400
1.600
1.800
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile 2015 PRE-Mobilegeddon Desktop 2015 Mobile 2014
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.07
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.02
MOBILE
ØDesktop = 1.140
ØMobile = 812

Word Count: Mobile vs Desktop

Relevant Terms
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Mobile Desktop
RANKING FACTORS
2015
𝜌1/234+5 = 0.15
𝜌*+,-./ = 0.09
MOBILE
ØDesktop = 49%
ØMobile = 46%

Semantic Content Optimization
It is all about the consumer intent and not keywords anymore
Basis: Searchmetrics Suite – Feature: „Content Optimization“

Mobile vs. Desktop
Mobile Desktop
DIFFERENCES?

A keyword that has
a higher search volume
in mobile search
?

Keyword Device Distribution

Example for Keyword Device Distribution

It‘s different!

Industry Standard for Understanding Performance
Longest running record
of Google™ data.
Most inputs.
More than just SEO
Only platform with
transactional search data
Historical
Data
Largest
Data Set
Interpret Customer
Intent
Apple
Watch

SEOzone 2015 - Marcus Tober - Ranking Factors For Mobile And Desktop Search

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