I have a keyword I rank #4 on Google for from my laptop, but page 3 for on my iphone!!! What am I missing here, that Google drops my rank back so far on mobile? Could things like load speed be a big SEO factor? Page size? Layout? Are those kind of things weighted more than on-site and off-site markup + social signals? Is there some type of markup that I could look to, or back away from when optimizing so I am not dropped so far back for mobile? I can't do too much about load speeds I think, a little optimization, but there is almost just text and a few graphics on my mainpage, nothing too intense.... :crazy:
Any help is super appreciated....
A couple of things. First of all, as you now know, Google has separate rankings for desktop and mobile searches. However, I have never seen a site with that big of a discrepancy and frankly, despite all the crap Google has put out there about mobile rankings, I just have not seen their mobile algorithm really punish sites that are not mobile friendly nor reward sites that are mobile friendly. I am tacking some sites that are as mobile unfriendly as you can imagine and they are in competitive spaces. Their rankings have actually improved on mobile search since Google's little mobile update. I think it was mostly a PR stunt to get webmasters to do what they wanted.
What is more likely the cause of your discrepancy is that you were seeing personalized results on your desktop and something closer to your real rankings on your phone.
Second, social signals are not a ranking factor in either desktop or mobile rankings, so that is not a problem.
It sounds like your host sucks. I would consider switching hosting.
Lastly, I would really recommend you get rid of that signature you have. I know the chances are slim that anyone at Google would catch wind of it, although if you think they don't visit SEO forums you are crazy, but if they do see that it looks like a big sign saying "Hey Google this my is trying to game rankings. I dare you to penalize it."
