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Say a website implements responsive design in order to display a proper user interface according to the screen width of the device (smartphone, tablet, laptop...).

Does Google display different search results according to the device's screen width? In other words, if a website displays a better user interface for smartphone than competition, will it rank better for queries made from smartphone?

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No. Google currently doesn't differentiate sites like that.

You may see indirect effects (smartphone users liking your responsive site and recommending it to others), but we don't use that as a ranking factor. We are starting to use common configuration errors to adjust the rankings in smartphone search results though.

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  • 4
    Thanks John, its always good to get some official word on items like this.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Oct 17, 2013 at 14:13
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    What about the speed boost mobile design usually gives? Isn't that factored in in the ranking?
    – Ivo van der Veeken
    Commented Oct 17, 2013 at 14:16
  • This question may be edited, according to last April update from Google
    – fiskolin
    Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 0:51
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When you test your server perf in Page Speed Insights, if you're testing a responsive page, the result shows 2 different pages:

  1. for your computer view and
  2. for your mobile view.

So, I guess that it will probably increase your PageRank, like this article says.

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Yes it does. The thing which contributes is the mobile loading speed of your website. A slower website will sure lose its ranks and yes a website which appear to have poor display on mobile will have high bounce rate and thus causes to lose ranks.

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