Are mobile or static Google results more relevant?

First of all, are the results shown to you on your smartphone different from the ones displayed on your desktop PC, when searching for something on Google? Let’s give it a try. I’ve just run a search for “plumber” on my smartphone using Google’s search app. The friendly lady’s voice told me “here are the listings for plumber within 18km”, and the listings come complete with quick links for “call”, “directions” or “website”.

Importantly, even without my GPS enabled, Google is able to determine my approximate position through geo-location, using wifi triangulation and such. So it only gives me the listings of those plumbers close to my location.

Now, when I run the same search on my PC or laptop, the results are quite different. The long and short of it is that with mobile search, Google can better determine my location than otherwise. And I am much more likely to do business with someone closer to me.

So, are the results given by Google on your smartphone more relevant than those on your PC? I think it is safe to say from the above that they are. Whether they are in fact BETTER is another story altogether, because Google filters many non-mobile friendly results on mobile search, perhaps sometimes excluding some better results simply because they are not friendly to view on mobile.

What does this mean for you as business owner? It is incredibly important in this day and age to have a website that is mobile-friendly. Techies call it a “responsive” design. If you don’t have it, Google might overlook you in favour of your competitor who does.