Mobile SEO: It’s About The Value, Not The Viral
Take a deep breath if you feel one step behind in terms of mobile Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If the crowd size for the session Getting Mobilized! Mobile Marketing Strategies at SES San Francisco is any suggestion, you are in quite excellent company.
The session, moderated by Paul Cushman, Senior Director, Mobile Sales Strategy, Yahoo!, featured on its panel:
- Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Detective, Rank-Mobile, LLC
- Sandeep Aggarwal, Administration Director, Internet & Software, Caris & Company
- Michael Martin, Owner, Mobile Martin
“Mobile is a channel, not a strategy,” states Kushman. “Channels may change, but marketing strategy is marketing strategy.”
Creation of a mobile app (whether for iPhone or Machine) for no other reason than to launch something ‘really cool’ carries roughly the same weight as making something viral just to make something viral. Both are fun, both are consumed, and both are easily forgotten.
Right value is hidden. Reckon of a neighborhood restaurant website that appears at the top of mobile rankings whenever you search for it. The entire website and menu show in your mobile device just as they would on your PC. Even better, this same website takes reservations frankly from its mobile version. Flashy and viral? Not really. Valuable and profitable? Unquestionably.
In a sense, mobile search is local search. This statement isn’t to suggest that mobile SEO is of value only for local search, rather, its to drive home the point the point of personalization. Mobile search results should match what the user is searching for, their location, and their mobile device.
A few mobile SEO tips from the panel:
- Know the popularity of mobile. In a statistic cited by Aggarrwal, 15 million plus Machine phones are shipped each year. Find out how many of your website visitors are arriving via these devices, and whether you have to go on mobile tomorrow or days gone by, by reviewing your analytics.
- Grasp that uncommon mobile users will see your content in uncommon ways. Feature phones (ie not Smart Phones) will oftentimes stack content from your site in a mobile browser while Smart Phones may show content either in zoom or postage stamp mode. Implementing mobile style sheets or building unique mobile content can ensure your content displays properly for any user. And because uncommon mobile and traditional search listings can grow in the same search results, user agents and redirects can be implemented to ensure the user is served the right content.
- Duplicate content concerns? Don’t worry. According to Krum, mobile content is not counted as duplicate – even if it is the exact same minus the platform. This is straight from Google Webmaster.
- Make a separate mobile XML site map and ensure it is convertible to mobile.
- Implement microformats. More and more, these will grow in mobile search results as rich snippets which can help compel the click.
Full disclosure?
In my role at TopRank, I will not be tasked with making a mobile app, developing a mobile site or working with any style sheets. We leave that to our genius-level SEO design professionals, like Thomas McMahon.
If any of the advice communicated in this post went a bit over your head technically, that’s OK. What is vital to grasp is what’s doable and what your users expect. Use this to shape the strategic direction of your campaign and tactical direction you give to your design team.
You can bet this session will shape one of the first conversations I have with my team post-event.
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