Mobile SEO
If you have a website, the growth of mobile internet usage is certainly something to think seriously about. While PC internet usage has increased by 3 % from the second to the third quarter of 2008, mobile internet usage has increased by a massive 25% (figures from a recent study by Nielsen Online http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_081124_uk.pdf). They are also a much younger group of people than PC internet users. These facts should be taken into consideration when planning a marketing campaign for 2009.
Why should you be interested in targeting a mobile audience?
- Mobiles are more personal – they enable you to target a specific demographic in a way that you can’t with normal internet users.
- They’re everywhere! Everyone has a mobile phone these days & they always have it with them – that’s a pretty wide audience.
The next 12 months look like they’ll be a defining moment for mobile internet advertising as the technology will begin to match customer expectation & people will start to rely on their phones for more than just communication. As more phones come onto the market like the iphone which make browsing the internet easy and fun, more people will expect to be able to surf easily wherever they are.
To get your website ready for mobile browsing, the first thing you need to do is make sure that it can be viewed from a mobile phone! While search results can link to your standard website, it is best to link to a mobile web page so you can be sure they are seeing what you want them to see. Due to the size of the screens, many wap browsers show the website in the same way that the search engine spiders see it, with the css taken out. The layout of your website must maintain its usability and look professional even with the images removed. This is important even for phones that do show the images, as the screens are still much smaller and the images may not scale down well. As there are so many different handsets with different screen sizes, it is best not to have a fixed width to your page.
You also need to think carefully about the content on the page and take out anything that isn’t really necessary. Long pieces of text can be wrapped onto multiple pages – once they’ve found what they’re looking for browsers won’t mind clicking through if it means they can read each page easily – but you should take care that it doesn’t require too many clicks to reach the information. Incorporating click to call functionality increases the likelihood of a conversion as the user just clicks on your telephone number to call you.
Most types of mobile advertising can be arranged in the same way as standard internet advertising. Banner adverts still appear next to relevant content on mobile sites, & in fact the click through rates are considerably higher for them, than for traditional internet sites, but you do need to consider the size of the advert and download speeds when you design it. Video adverts are increasing in popularity through sites such as itunes, youtube and channel 4 online, and just as online, mobile adverts appear before or after the video. In game adverts are quite popular as once the user has downloaded the game, they have to view the adverts each time they play the game. The iphone’sapp store has a plethora of ‘free’ applications which have adverts integrated in, & as they can be downloaded for free, the users don’t mind the frequent ads.
How does mobile SEO work?
On the whole mobile SEO is the same as standard SEO, but there are a few things you need to bear in mind. The most important thing is your website; you need to know what your site looks like to mobile users, and then make sure that it looks how you want it to look! There are a few phones, such as the iphone, that can view your standard website, but they are still quite rare and the screens are still a fraction of the size of a pc screen. The functionality of the search engines is more or less the same, but the listings are presented differently as the results are limited by the small screen size. Generally there are 10 organic search listings with 2 or 3 PPC listings at the top and bottom of the page. However, these usually need to be scrolled through, so each listing actually occupies 25% of the screen, giving you less competition as users are more likely to choose your website if you are near the top. Mobile PPC adverts are also more visible for the same reasons, so although pc users tend to prefer the organic results, mobile users may start to click through the PPC links rather than scrolling down to the natural listings. Hence mobile SEO strategies should include both organic search engine optimisation and a pay per click campaign. Geographical searches may also become more popular as more phones offer GPS navigation functions and you’ll be able to place adverts to target your local area.
People searching on their mobiles tend to search for specific details, using long key phrases, rather than browsing through the listings. Websites at the top of the mobile listings are therefore more likely to have genuine prospects clicking through to their site, so SEO is as critical as ever. There is currently no information on which mobile websites are used by which demographic, but this is improving, and as mobile internet becomes more popular, this data should become available. However, there is conversion tracking and reporting available just as there is on standard search engines.
When it comes to mobile SEO, there is a lot to think about, but as the world of the internet becomes mobile, companies need to make sure they are still visible.
This was a very informative article. I will read your blog often.