People are attached to their mobile devices. In fact, one in three Americans who owns a smartphone would rather give up his or her television set than have their smartphone taken away. Smartphones give us the Internet at our fingertips, and a traveling computer that fits in our pockets. Many people would be lost without them and almost every industry is being forced to adjust to the mobile world.
One in seven online searches is performed on a mobile device; searching on a mobile device is easy and convenient for users. If you fail to optimize your website for mobile use, you are likely missing out on a wealth of traffic to your site. Here are ways to help start optimizing your site for mobile traffic.
Before you can begin to optimize your mobile site, it is essential to first gain an understanding of your businesses’ mobile audience
Have an analytics team put together stats of your site’s current organic traffic volume, any trends among visitors to your site, the devices they use to access your site, and keywords that lead them to your business. The answers to these questions will help you determine if you are in the right industry to benefit from mobile search.
After determining that you need a mobile site and gaining an understanding of your mobile audience, it is crucial to dig deeper and begin to understand your visitors’ mobile behavior.
1. Identify your audience’s top search terms
What kind of content do they engage with? We know that people engage with video and pictures as well as social media more when using their mobile devices compared to the desktop. Determining the type of content your audience engages with most will give you a solid foundation for understanding how to optimize your mobile site.
2. Determine which devices browsers and search engines they use
Mobile search is a completely different beast than a desktop search. Now with Google Goggles or Siri, users can search without typing and interact with their mobile device vocally. The types of questions that are asked will help you decide which keywords or phrases should be tied into your mobile optimization to generate higher search rankings.
3. Find out where your audience is
Different algorithms do exist for desktop and mobile search, according to search experts at Google. If someone searches for a bakery on his desktop, the results may not include local businesses. However, when searching on a mobile device, local bakeries within a 5-mile radius are the first to show up in search results. This is fantastic for local businesses and one of the greatest benefits of mobile optimization.
As the number of mobile users continues to grow and mobile search begins to dominate the search industry, having a mobile website optimized for search will help potential customers locate your business on a new platform. Many of the same content marketing rules still apply; adjusting to the mobile game is what will help take your business or company to the next level and stake its claim as an industry leader.
