Source: http://www.morevisibility.com/blogs/seo/7-factors-that-affect-mobile-search-rankings.html
Mobile searches have reached unprecedented levels surpassing desktop searches in 10 countries including US and Japan. With the mobile-friendly update that took place last April, more and more web owners have started to reconsider their overall website design structures complying with this update.
Factors that Affect Mobile Search
Although these websites may were mobile-friendly to begin with, there are still a number of things to consider if one truly wants to boost their site’s mobile ranking. A recent study examining top-ranking pages in mobile search has identified the following common factors to be the cause of these site’s boosts in mobile rankings:
Site loading speed
About 1.10 seconds is all it takes for the best ranking mobile pages to load on average. Google’s Page Speed Tool can help you test your website’s loading speed performance. It also points out what causes your slow load time and provide recommendations.
Images on landing page
Adding relevant and quality images is important for both desktop and mobile websites, however, it is highly recommended that these images are optimized for mobile displays as this would also reduce load time for faster loading speed and make it easier for Google bots to crawl.
Fonts
Font sizes for the best ranking mobile pages are larger compared to desktop pages. These best ranking mobile pages use 15pt font above the fold (the area visible without scrolling when visiting the site) while desktop sites use less than 14pt.
Bullets
When presenting information in mobile, it’s important to limit the number of items to the essentials.
Word count
Reducing content length for mobile devices is advised as among the top ranking mobile pages; content are comprehensive and remain significantly less than that of the average desktop page.
Flash
Of the sites tested, only 5% of the top performing sites have Flash elements in their landing pages. Hence, it’s not recommended integrating your mobile pages with Flash.
Avoid redirects
Mobile pages with less redirects are being served in top mobile organic positions. Avoid too much redirects on your mobile pages as much as possible.
