Desktop vs mobile: differences in SERPs

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Desktop vs mobile, their behavior has been the subject of our study, for this, we have randomly chosen 50,000 keywords from the database to find out what the search results are like for the same query on different platforms.

Spoiler alert: It's not like the difference is night and day, but the result is pretty disturbing.

Desktop vs mobile: SERP differences
There are a lot of deviations between platforms – not too extreme, but only 13% of sites manage to retain exactly the same position across all devices.

Search results across devices are different due to different SERP features and, obviously, screen space, which drastically changes the user experience and visibility of your website.

The fact that mobile traffic share is consuming more and more global bandwidth has become a point of concern.

Our search methodology
In our study, we used SEMrush’s “organic search” tool to look at URL deviations as well as domain deviations for 50,000 randomly selected keywords from the US database.

The overall picture looks like this - we took screenshots of the search results on the desktop and compared them with screenshots from the mobile device for the same query.

The data shows that URL deviations form a snapshot of how many pages have lost positions in mobile search.

For a more accurate and detailed presentation of the differences between desktop and mobile results we have used “domain position changes”.

By following domains instead of specific pages, we ensure that we are taking into account mobile v email database list ersions of pages with different URLs.

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About the organic search tool
SEMrush Organic Research is a simple tool that provides deep insights into the behavior of any domain.

In a matter of seconds, you'll get the top keywords that are driving traffic to your site, see recent ups and downs in search rankings and any featured results, and a list of your top organic competitors.