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Mobilegeddon hype has been sweeping the web for weeks, will it really be all that disastrous? We wonder…
Google Mobile SERP Fluctuations: Last 30 Days
Although Google announced the roll-out of their new mobile search algorithm would begin today, our Rank Risk Index for Google Mobile indicates that they may have been testing or gradually rolling out their mobile-friendly algorithm since April 18th.
developed for comparison with our Desktop SERP Fluctuations graph to
make it easy for you to compare mobile and desktop search engine activity. (Update June 2016 – Rank Ranger has just released its new Mobile SERP Features Tracker which allows you to follow the trends of all the Google search features appearing on the mobile SERP.)
Google Mobile SERP Fluctuations: Last 90 Days
It will be interesting to monitor the Mobile SERP fluctuations in the coming weeks following the update that some have referred to as “Mobilegeddon”.
The February spike we reported in our Google Algorithm Updates History apparently affected mobile search in addition to desktop, however, the roll out of Mobile-Friendly is showing dramatic fluctuations only in the Mobile Rank Risk Index.
Mobile Rank Tracking
With Google including mobile-friendy rank in their search algorithm internationally, their goal of improving user search experience may be achieved, however, just how much will that affect the rank position of sites that do not pass the mobile friendliness test?
Using the keyword technology news, let’s take a look at a campaign we’re tracking for mobile-friendly Mashable.com and their competitors.
To be fair, PC Magazine’s home page did pass the mobile-friendliness test, however, we’re tracking targeted URLs for the technology news keyword and the News section of their website scored a “Not mobile-friendly” in Google’s test.
In the Rank Tracker Dashboard we can view the baseline rank (the first rank recorded for the keyword and URL combination by our SEO software), along with Mobilegeddon Day rank, and the daily, weekly, monthly and overall change.
According to the SERP data even though Mashable was declared mobile-friendly they are in mobile search position 33 today for the technology news keyword, while PC Magazine has held onto it’s rank in position 15 regardless of it’s mobile-friendliness failure. And Mashable clearly has significantly more domain backlinks, referring domains and a higher Moz score, along with better social market share. So there is something more behind the new algorithm determining the rank fate of these tech news sites that will require their SEO teams to increase their online marketing efforts.
A quick run of our On-Page Keyword Optimization tool for Mashable revealed room for improvement of page title & meta description and page structure, plus the need to remedy W3C validation warnings. PC Magazine’s page also had W3C warnings and is missing the Viewport Tag as well as image alt tags, but their page title and meta description are well written.
Obviously there is much more to mobile SEO and so I recommend you monitor the Daily Snapshot report, along with the big picture metrics, until the climate settles. And if the mobile audience is important to your site and it failed the mobile-friendly test, review and implement the mobile SEO best practices detailed in Google’s Guide to Mobile-Friendly Websites. But first, add mobile search rank tracking to your campaigns to establish a benchmark rank.
Add Google Mobile Search
It’s easy to add Google Mobile search to your Rank Tracking campaign, simply open Campaign Settings > Search Engines and select the mobile search engine for your country.
Marketing KPIs
Be sure to connect a Google Analytics account to rank tracking campaigns for traffic data integration that will allow you to view organic vs. mobile traffic, as well as specific segments like Mobile, Tablet, iOS, Android, etc.
Mobile Search Engine Availability
If you need to track mobile search in some exotic or faraway location, we’ve got you covered – check out the list of 400+ search engines supported by Rank Ranger.
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