Google SERPS specially for mobiles

[nomis5]

At the moment the Google SERPS viewed on mobiles is almost exactly the same as if viewed on a PC or laptop.

As far as I am concerned this is really pathetic and gives lie to the idea that the Gxxx algo is sophisticated. It's not, it can't even serve up different results for mobiles and PCs. We give far too much credit to the sophistication of the G algo, it's still a very basic beast.

The question I have though is do you think that G will ever be able to serve up mobile SERPS (aimed at the mobile user) in the near future.

There is a whole pile of worms in any solution to this but your ideas would be appreciated.

[lucy24]

Hypothethis: It has nothing to do with whether the site is any good for mobiles. It's based entirely on what googlebot-mobile sees. If it's redirected (based on UA or some other criterion) to a mobile version of the site, that's what the SERP shows. If it gets the same page as everyone else, it's same old same old.

[nomis5]

That's what doesn't really make sense - "what the google bot mobile sees".

My sites redirect to mobile versions, responsive design effectively does the same.

But, the position which G places your site in the SERPS when viewed from a mobile is exactly the same as when looking at the SERPS from a PC. In other words the Googlebot mobile may be visiting a mobile site but it does almost nothing as a result of that visit.

If the mobile SERPS really were based on what google bot mobile sees then you would expect to see different SERPS results from mobiles and PCs.

My sites are significantly different when viewed on a mobile compared to a PC.

[nomis5]

Just to keep digging at this, say I have a page called blue widget. I have a mobile version and a pc version. The PC version has user comments / ratings on it but the mobile version does not have comments / ratings.

I also have rich snippets to show the comments number and average rating, but only on the pc version of the page.

Thanks to rich snippets I get an enhanced listing (stars etc) in the G serps when viewed from a pc. But I also get the enhanced listing when viewing G serps from a mobile even though the mobile page doesn't have those Rich Snippets.

So, what exactly is the G mobile bot doing with the information it gathers? It certainly is not affecting the mobile SERPS.

[lucy24]

Obvious technical question: are both kinds of googlebot (plain and mobile) crawling both sites? Don't trust anything other than your logs for this one.

Does your mobile site have a different URL, or is it all done invisibly behind the scenes? Can you put together a custom search and see if you get both versions of your site on the same SERP at the same time?

[nomis5]

Does your mobile site have a different URL, or is it all done invisibly behind the scenes? Can you put together a custom search and see if you get both versions of your site on the same SERP at the same time?

The mobile is a .mobi, the main site is .co.uk so they are definitely separate. They are also designed differently although the content in general is the same.

I can never get both versions of the sites in the SERPS at the same time. Google appears to understand very clearly now that the .mobi is a mobile version of the .co.uk. I use the link rel alternate and link rel canonical tags on all pages so the G knows about the relationship between the two sites.

I also monitor a few other sites which have either separate mobile sites or sub domains and it seems clear that G is using information from the main site only for both sets of SERPS - formatting and the positions in the SERPS. Has anyone ever found a site that appears in the mobile SERPS differently to the position in the normal SERPS?

I also have a couple of other sites of my own with sub-domain versions for mobile and the same applies.

I'll check out the logs of the sites to see if both bots are accessing them but I'm not sure what that would add to working out exactly what the G mobile bot is doing with the information it is harvesting.