Rankings Way Different On Mobile than Desktop

[bobs01]

I have a couple of questions for the geniuses of BHW.

My desktop rankings and mobile ranking are so far different they might as well be in different universes. The wordpress theme that we are using is absolutely horrible for mobile. 70% of the top of the screen is covered by the menu and you can't make it go away. I have told the owner many times that 60% of web traffic is mobile and we are only getting 50 clicks a month on mobile compared to 250 on desktop.

According to google our mobile website is "pretty good" so their algorithm doesn't seem to mind that it is a horrible experience.

According to SEMrush we are ranking in the top 100 rankings for 278 keywords. For mobile, we are ranking 8 keywords in the top 100.

I understand that mobile ranking is different than desktop but it is sooo far off that i have to assume that it is the horrible wordpress mobile experience.

Is that the case, or am I such a noob at SEO that i do not understand some huge concept about mobile ranking that is different that desktop ranking?

 

[ThopHayt]

Sounds like the owner is an idiot. Mobile index is indeed ranked different than desktop, separate rankings based on things, you're correct. Not to even mention user experience. That will affect back-clicks and conversion rates and hurt rankings that was. Content on mobile may be shitty as well, sounds like you have a bull-headed client who wants to learn through failure.

-ThopHayt

 

[bobs01]

He is afraid changing the theme of the website will cause him to lose his rankings in desktop for 3 months while everything "readjusts." I get it because the business isn't in the best spot and if he does lose his desktop rankings the leads generated might put him out of business. I told him that there is evidence that changing a website theme will not effect rankings much if done right but i dont know if he wants to take the risk. We could literally double his leads generated if we could change the theme.

 

[ThopHayt]

because the business isn't in the best spot and if he does lose his desktop rankings the leads generated might put him out of business

If he does nothing the same thing might happen slower. The best option would be to rebuild it RIGHT so that he gains traffic instead of losing it... but that won't be easy (or cheap usually).

-ThopHayt