Mobile ready websites have become the hot topic for 2011 and web enabled businesses need to ensure that their web presence is ready for the mobile consumer.
More critically this transition represents another opportunity for new brands to establish themselves whilst existing businesses need to battle to maintain their position as searches move to mobile platforms. What does this mean for search engine optimisation?
Is Mobile SEO real?
Search Engine Journal recently published an article entitled ‘Mobile SEO is a Myth‘ and whilst much of the content of their article is valid the author seems to draw 2 main conclusions.
MOBILE SEO DOESN’T EXIST
Mobile SEO is Local SEO
Now as a company that focusses on Local SEO, the team at e-mphasis have been banging on about how a significant proportion of mobile searches have local intent, but in our opinion these two conclusions are a little misleading.
Mobile SEO does not exist
Ironically we agree with the first of the above conclusions from a certain perspective in that the techniques and practices used to achieve top ranking positions on search engines do not change as a result of the move to mobile searches.
That’s not to say that marketing professionals should assume that their traditional SEO will be sufficient to deliver the same results in a mobile world.
Mobile Searches Are Different
Google’s research shows the types of search, length of search phrases and words used by consumers are clearly different on mobile and therefore the target phrases for mobile search will vary from those previously targeted for desktop based searches.
This presents an issue for most websites in that the content they already have may have been optimised for desktop searches and now will need to transition to target top mobile search terms.
Notably, for businesses that have separate mobile and desktop sites this is far simpler since there is no conflict of target search phrases and they don’t have to worry about losing desktop market share as they move to mobile focussed SEO.
Mobile SEO is NOT Local SEO
The second conclusion above is far too simplistic in that techniques for local SEO on mobile will begin to diverge from those on the desktop. We expect this split to be driven by Apple’s move to Siri voice search technology, increasing the importance of local business reviews on Yelp (and other providers) and reducing the relevance of the search engine’s own local business listings for many types of consumer focussed business.
Business types that have seen most growth in mobile search are likely to be more affected by this, e.g. restaurants, hotels, entertainment.
Local SEO includes Mobile Local SEO
Local SEO is something that most B2C businesses should engage in, and they should ensure that their strategy supports both desktop and mobile searches. Multi-channel businesses in particular need to ensure that the mobile and desktop users are offered prioritised channels to suit their needs.
Therefore local mobile SEO is simply a subset of local SEO from the marketing perspective and other aspects of SEO relating to mobile traffic should also be addressed within the relevant marketing disciplines.
