36 per cent of Google web search results vary between mobile and desktop, according to a Searchmetrics study in the US – and 23 per cent of results showed pages from entirely different sites between devices.

The study, which looked at 10,000 informational and transactional keywords, found that mobile search results on Google.com tend towards pages with a smaller file size on average. Theyre also likely to include pages with fewer backlinks from other sites compared to desktop, which Searchmetrics puts down to the fact that mobile content generates fewer ad hoc links, because mobile users are much less likely to link to dedicated mobile pages, and more likely to share through social media.

“Google is increasingly focused on the intent and context of search queries,” said Searchmetrics founder and CTO Marcus Tober. “It understands that these vary between devices, and consequently delivers results differently on mobile phones and traditional computers. For mobile searches it has additional information about the searcher, such as their location, which impacts the results it delivers. Our research demonstrates that marketers need to focus on different areas than they do for desktop, if they are to increase visibility on smartphones.

“The difference in number of links occurs because many companies still use dedicated mobile pages.  If more companies start using responsive design – which automatically optimises the same page to suit different devices – you would see fewer or even no overall differences in backlinks or social links because it’s the same URLs.”