A Can question

Can an SEO company track mobile performance separately?

3 min read Cites 3 sources

Yes, and the separation is built into the tools it should already be using. Search Console splits search data by device, its Core Web Vitals report has separate summaries for mobile and desktop, and analytics records the device of each visit. A report that shows only combined figures hides differences that matter, because the same page can rank, load, and convert differently on a phone and on a computer. One limit applies to page experience data on smaller sites, and a careful report states it.

Search data by device

In Search Console’s Performance report, device is one of the standard ways to group data. Google’s explanation of the report’s dimensions says: “The devices dimension groups data by the type of device on which the user is searching: desktop, tablet, or mobile.” With it, a company can show clicks, impressions, click-through rate, and average position for each device, and compare them side by side for the same page or search. That answers questions a combined figure cannot, such as whether a page is earning clicks on phones or only on desktop.

Page experience by device

Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report has separate summary pages for mobile and desktop, each grouping your pages by status. The same page can be good on desktop and poor on mobile, so the two need to be read separately.

There is a limit: the report is based on real visitors’ data, and for some sites there is not enough of it. Google notes that a “No data available” screen can mean that “there is not enough data available in the CrUX report to provide meaningful information for the chosen device type (desktop or mobile).” When that happens for one device, the company has to rely on lab tests for that device and should say so in its report, rather than presenting lab results as if they were field data.

Why the mobile view matters

Google indexes sites using their mobile version, so the mobile figures describe the version Google evaluates. The desktop figures still matter for the visitors who use computers, and for some businesses they can account for a large share of inquiries. Reading both, rather than one blended number, shows where to act.

Reading the two side by side

Comparing devices points to the cause of a problem. If mobile positions fall while desktop positions hold, the issue may be in the mobile version of the page. If mobile traffic is healthy but mobile inquiries are low, the page may be hard to use on a phone, for example a form that is awkward on a small screen. In analytics, segmenting key events by device category shows where conversions happen.

Asking for a report split by device

Ask the company to report search performance, Core Web Vitals, and key events by device, to say when a device has too little field data, and to explain any gap between mobile and desktop in terms of a cause it can test.

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