There's no doubt that mobile and, by extension, local search is hot. Technology pundits have been declaring every year since 2005 "The Year of Mobile" - that magical moment when everyone suddenly starts using their mobile device for more than just playing games, texting, calling friends, checking email, downloading/using apps and occasionally browsing the web and... I don't know... browses the web more?
If I sound a bit cynical on the topic of mobile it's not out of a disbelief in the power of mobile devices or the acceleration of their influence on our technological connectedness. It's because I think we're, to a large extent, already there. The smartphone has won our hearts and minds, and this year, it will finally be more popular than the feature phone:
Nearly half of us already have iPhones, Blackberries, Androids or similar in our pockets when we're on the proverbial "go." But search - the process, the intent, the results - just isn't that different on mobile devices vs. laptops and desktops.
Yes, mobile searchers are more likely to perform local searches than other varieties, but I actually believe this trend may be overblown. A substantive portion of searches performed from a laptop/desktop have local intent as well. As the mobile experience gets ever closer to mimicing that of the laptop/desktop, I suspect we'll be searching on our mobiles in a remarkably similar fashion to how we search everywhere else. In fact, the top mobile searches of 2010 are similar (and surprisingly non-local) to the top general searches of the year.
Increased speed, functionality, screen size, resolution, readability, battery life, multimedia capacity, etc. don't sound like features that make the mobile experience unique; they strike me as moving toward feature parity.
Research from Doubleclick, comparing search on mobile devices w/ full browsers vs. computers strongly suggests that we're moving towards search parity, too. Queries are similar, clicks are similar, click-through-rate is similar, even conversion rate is getting close (though mobile is still a much more research-based experience, with a tough-to-measure influence of offline conversions).
This doesn't mean you can or should ignore mobile/local as a powerful organic marketing channel, but it does mean that you don't need to be building separate mobile sites or separate mobile experiences. Unless your site/content is seriously challenging for mobile users, even those with fast, impressive devices, you should worry more about other marketing avenues.
The big trends I see in mobile search are:
- A lot more queries - mobile search is growing faster than traditional search and that bodes well for search marketers.
- A single set of SERPs - I searched for a good 20 minutes on my laptop and Android phone without finding a query where the web results are in a different order (both are location-aware to "Seattle, WA")
- A chance to make your mobile-focus known - Yelp does a great job with their overlay on mobile devices encouraging searchers to download their app (though some have complained it gets annoying having to say "no" every time if you don't want it).
- Little need for a separate mobile site - Mobile copies of websites seem to me to be more likely to cause duplicate content issues, technical challenges, waste engineering resources and draw away attention from real mobile opportunities than to earn slightly higher rankings in mobile searches. Until/unless things change dramatically, I can't, in good conscience, recommend this practice (unless your regular site is absolutely unusable on a mobile device).
- Definite need for a separate mobile ad strategy - Unlike SEO, the paid search results can and do differ dramatically on mobile devices. CPC is generally lower, as are conversion rates, though the latter may be on an upward trend (especially if I'm right about device convergence)
- Apps are still beloved - I don't know if the long term future of mobile will continue to focus on apps, but for now, it's a huge part of what differentiates the device. It's certainly a great way to "contain" users in your brand and provide a more tailored experience, and for those who can make it work effectively, the effect can be great.
- Geography matters - mobile and traditional search are both getting more and more biased by geography. My opinion is that Google currently sucks at this (I have yet to find a search I like better with location-biasing than without, maps/places not withstanding), but they certainly won't be giving up. As a result, if you can tailor your content and your marketing to effectively serve and be seen as local, you can seriously benefit.
Looking forward to your thoughts about mobile search and the future of mobile SEO. I continually get the sense that I'm an anomaly in how I view the mobile web and its impact on search, so I'm always interested to hear what others think on the topic.
Little need for a separate mobile site - that really depends where you are. Africa will pretty much skip wired connectivity altogether and go straight to mobile. All you can eat data packages will be extremely rare if avialable at all. Text driven, aggressively cut down versions of sites are a must.
How big an image or file is, is still a really big deal in a lot of places
Exactly. Its a part of that old issue of the 'Red Queen' - as technology gets faster, its required to serve ever greater amounts of ever more complex data, so the internet isn't noticeably any faster than it was a few years ago. Whilst our computers and connections can held way more data than ever before, we now throw WAY more data at it...
Its a pain when adverts slow your page load down.
I have a 5gig data package, and even I find that annoying, and prefer to use apps that rip online content over Wi-Fi overnight than use mobile data, if possible.
I disagree. While data-heavy sites might be hard on people with tight data plans, there is no way to determine if a site is data-heavy from a Search Engine Results Page. Moreover, to my knowledge there are no real-time reporting tools on smart phones to let a user know which websites are data-heavy. Hell, there aren't even historical tools to look back and see which websites were wasting your bandwidth on a smart phone.
Well, you can still see yourself. If i browse theregister everyday, I know an imageless site is less bandwidth than a version with images
And its a good point about there not being tools at the moment. Not inconceivabel that some are on the way tho
If we were to search something on Internet, our first instinct used to be - go catch a computer and Google the thing (to google something on iphone wasn't quite as fulfilling unless all you have is an iphone). People use smart phones to consume information rather finding information. However, the user trend has started to change quite sharply.
As of now, low ROI of a mobile marketing campaign becomes a certain issue. From my experience working in Mobile Networks like Admob, I have learned that the traffic coming from smart phones is a lot more impatient (blame it on screen size and demographics) and conversion can be pathetic. In Admob alone, if an advertizer gets the demographics wrong, he/she can burn a whole in his/her pocket in no time. Budgets have to be kept very tight (in spite of low CPC) because the an ad can get thousands of impressions in a matter of few hours.
None the less, as ipads and similar bigger devices get more popular, the conversions will definitely improve and mobile marketing will do better in terms of ROI and not just exposure.
Great Post !
Exactly, impatient traffic. algogmbh, scalax, rgecko77, AnnetteT also all made very good points. What is the intention of the mobile searcher and is it impulsive? If you run a restaurant, optimizing for mobile makes sense. The impulse isn't inconsistent with someone spending money at your restaurant. On the other hand, if you're a Realtor and someone is searching for an agent to show them 1 house at a moments notice (because their real agent -- who will get their business and get paid -- is busy), then that's problematic -- time wasting, frustrating, and a financial waste. I'm still amazed by the number of companies trying to tell Realtors they have to have a mobile websites for their business. Ugh!
I completely agree about the convergence of "traditional" search, but what about the new approaches smartphones bring? For example, if I'm walking through a new neighborhood looking for a restaurant on my iPhone, I don't go to the browser or a search engine - I go to the Google Maps app or maybe something like the Yelp app. At that point, location-specific search tied to GPS is so superior to regular organic for my purposes that I can't see going back. The very fact that the phone is mobile and I carry it with me changes my search needs, in essence. I think that does have very real implications for SEO, even if it's not a huge percentage of use cases at this point.
The way I see it is restaurants and the like already need local search, increasing usage of smartphones isn't going to fundamentally change that need, it's simly going to make it that much more important for them to be optimized on local search like google places.
I don't think it has "implications for SEO" as such, rather that SEO, and PPC for that matter, is evolving...as it always does.
I can't put my finger on the resource now but I believe that in Yell's beta version of its streetview, you can pay for virtual billboard advertising space!
Crazy, but exciting!
Good point but i and many people still prefer "suburb/ restaurant" in a browser for a few reasons.
One good one being sites created specifically for reviews and better alternatives.
I'm using my iPhone more and more for search. Don't see any need in my sphere for separate mobile sites; which was somewhat of a concern a year ago. Love the apps - but hope they don't take over too much as I prefer searchers come to my client's sites :-)
Rand,
Good post but I disagree about the need for a mobile website (of course I am biased). We work with 100's of businesses around the world who recognize that the way customers use their mobile site is significantly different than the desktop site. Simply pushing a desktop site designed for a 10 - 15 inch experience, into a 2 - 3 inch screen is unusable by design. As you say Search may be tracking similar paths - desktop and mobile, but once they get to mobile web they expect a different experience. Mobile users are an impatient bunch - they want immediate gratification for information that helps them where they are, they want to interact with that brand in their immediate environment - that might mean using QR codes or other transactional capabilities. Also the expectation that the site "knows" where they are - changes the game here... that is a huge difference for brands. Telling people they don't have to think about mobile web experience is really missing a huge point about why mobile is exciting at all - having a connected computer that can interact with your environment, and knows where you are is very different.
There is no real need to add a separate mobile website and it goes back to the old accessibility debates from five years ago whether there should be separate text only sites or not for the visually impaired. The answer then was no and the solution (W3C) was to enhance a current website to meet at least the minimum of accessibility guidelines. The same methodology applies to mobile websites. A site can now meet mobile friendly guidelines by the use of switching style sheets when a mobile browser is detected.
I have heard arguments why larger portals would want to create separate mobile platforms to serve up scaled down content for its users. Shopping systems generally benefit from this.
I would be interested to see stats for how long a user actually spends searching via the mobile web in comparison to a desktop user. I cannot imagine very long at all given cost and other factors such as time etc. I feel when it comes to marketing for the mobile web this is a crucial area that would need to be considered.
Good posting Rand.
There are a few of things here;
The first thing is that the approach to creating a website on a mobile device has changed astronomically in the past 5 years. There is no longer the need for specialist WAP versions of our websites, as was the case back in the dawn of mobile internet around 1998. Modern smart phones can handle nearly all of today’s web technology’s (most recently including jQuery) and so the development of a website for use on both traditional and mobile devices is, in the vast number of cases, simply a task in usability.
This needs to take into account device resolutions and screen sizes, and in turn the positioning of call to actions, navigational structures and aesthetics. Semantics and programming languages have no need to be tailored.
Secondly in regards to marketing a mobile site organically; I personally feel that the usage of search on a mobile device currently, and in the foreseeable future, will not differ of that seen in search on a traditional device such as a PC. A 2010 study by BuzzCity found that 70% of mobile internet usage takes place in the home and so, while locational aspects may be at play, I would hazard a guess that it’s calling upon our nature of being lazy. Why leave the room, boot up the PC, wait 10 minutes and then perform your search, when you have the power to do the search with your mobile phone… without even having to stand-up!
Finally, I’d expand on your mentioning of Apps. Like yourself Rand, I’m no fortune teller and so what the future holds for Apps and what their next incarnation may be, lie in the unknown. However now and most defiantly for the next year or so, Apps are of huge importance in any brands mobile web presence. As you point out, conversion rates are low but slowly on the increase and this is due in no small part to Apps.
There are Apps for buying products, Apps for telling you what products you should be buying and even Apps that will scan a real items barcode and automatically add it to your online shopping cart. So now when you run out of tea bags you can instantly order some more without having to stop stirring your brew!
So while SEO is a definite must, I don’t feel there is any new or different practices that should be undertaken to target mobiles users. The focus should be placed on the development of the website to ensure it is smartphone friendly and the consideration of creating your own App.
Good point on the apps. I think mobile search may create a new branch of search, where the app takes over from the human. Thinks of the ebay and amazon apps already on the market, where they read barcodes and search their respective databases for matching results. This could lead to a whole new strand of SEO. Maybe the brick and mortar establishments will want some sort SEO to insure that their products are competitive with those online. The possibilities are endless, so perhaps mobile search will evolve a completely different set of characteristics to PC based search.
Going off topic for a minute for nostalgia's sake. I was looking for a recent Google local post by ran on the changes recently and found this in Google from 2006 https://www.seomoz.org/blog/an-excellent-guide-to-local-search-marketing#jtc130380 -- read it, it will remind you how much this info has changed since. Its not that it's wrong, its that their is so little on the subject and the resource it points to has even less. It looks like a 101 ezine article.
Yes day by day we are more likely to Android phone. So mobile SEO is very common nowadays. So mobile version of your site is needed, For getting more traffic.
Mobile version usually helps to most of the SME's to follow ups their daily transction and to keep update themselves for their business aspects. But as per my knowledge concern that most of the newbie shopping sites doesn't have theire user consol better to get attract the end customers.
Personally i think that the future of mobile search will be local search.
As the smarthphones takes over the feature phones more more users gets access to the wonderful combo of "web access + gps always with you". Due to this more and more people will start to use their smarthphones for real time local searches not only to find restaurants and so on but only to get directions to it (think to Google Maps Navigation).
Beside of local search however, i think that the rest of the search market will just stay as it is now and that the high conversion queries will stay on pc-based searches; you know: the larger amount of money you are gonna spend, the larger amount of time you need to think if you really want to spend it :)
Great post as always.
Only one thing was surprising to see on the list. I'm surprised that you would feel that it would be unconscionable to recommend using a seperate mobile site given the prevalence of the trend towards stronger mobile adoption and the fact that Google has a seperate ranking algo for mobile search. I agree it would depend on the site, but might suggest that the happy middle ground is at very least mobile specific landing pages.. :)
Cheers.
Warren.
My eCommerce site 'is' a cell phone site. The only things I ship now are iPhones and internet capable phones. Sometimes I do get orders for the old school RAZR phone, but I think that's becuase it's an older person who doesn't want any of the advanced features brought by smartphones. So from my end, I agree that there is definitely a move that will surpass the regular cell phone. By the way, I don't have an Android phone or iPhone because if I did, I would be on the internet 100% of the day!
"Little need for a separate mobile site"
Not often I disagree with you Rand, but on this occasion I think this statement is too sweeping. The Mozzers build a huge variety of sites, and whether we have a mobile version should depend on a whole range of factors with SEO being only one of them. Another important factor is user experience. If you're building for an audience that contains a significant segment of mobile users (and "significant" isn't always defined as a number), then your UX needs to be optimized for handheld devices.
On one of the sites I'm connected with, mobile usage is a small percentage of the total, but ramping up fast, and so we have a mobile version. As a result the mobile user's experience and ability to achieve his/her objectives is greatly increased as there is less panning and zooming or double tapping and looking for the Tweet or Facebook or Next button - they are clearly marked and easy to find. And, while the site is relatively recent, early data is showing an increased upward trend in total mobile traffic.
FYI, we haven't optimized the site for iPad for the reasons you give; the experience on the iPad is very close to desktop.
Maybe it's me, but personally I don't use that much the mobile search on my smartphone. But, if I act so - and I consider myself quite a geek - I reasonably suppose that "normal users (sorry, I don't know how better describe them right now) are doing almost the same.
I think that the App philosophy has too much influenced the way people generally use smartphones.If I want to read news, I use my preferred newspapers' apps; if I want to check out what people suggests around me I will probably check out the users tips on Foursquare; if I need to look for a local shop, yes, I will search it, but using directly the Google apps and Google Maps. To not talk of the apps that syncronices my desktop browser favorites with the mobile ones (existing app for Firefox)... my smartphone browser is opened quite a lot in the background, but by Twitter links, Facebook links, Stumble Upon links..
Therefore, I believe that mobile search is not still so used... at least in these latitudes where I live and work. But it is sure that it will be something growing along time, therefore I find interesting your conclusions about the close similarity between "desktop" and "mobile" search.
About the necessity or less of a mobile version of a website, if I am not wrong, it is already possible to develop the same website in order to show itself graphically optimized gor one medium or another (at least, I have seen quite a bunch of WP and Joomla templates offering this).
Just today I noticed that Adwords only approves ads conditionally if there is no mobile version of the landing page and the campaign targets mobile devices.
I don't really see much need for the search engines to change the algorithm to much from mobile to PC. With 3G pages load almost as fast as on my computer. Plus any local search I may conduct on my PC, I likely want the same results on my phone, assuming I am in the same physical place when I search on either platform.
I suspect the focus on local search by Google is driven by mobile searches, but again if I'm running a local search on my desktop I likely want the same results. For example where can I get my bike fixed? I want to know the closest place. Perhaps the searches have changed to reflect more of a local type query, I'm not sure, only Google knows for certain.
Further you can do keyword research on Google's Keyword Tool and to look at differences between terms from PC vs. Mobile. It's not so much the algorithm as it is the users input and intent of the product.
Lastly I can see mobile search evolving to uses all the "senses" of a mobile device, Video, Audio, and Text inputs, as different ways to search, which we see in Google Goggles, Voice Search, and the traditional type in a word. We may even see some sort of augmented reality search that integrates with Google maps at some point. These are all things you can't do easily on a PC device, but are easily done with a phone.
I do believe that mobile search will grow but will never ever reach the importance his "big brother". In my opinion we do use our mobile phones for business use for calling and checking emails. Mobile search is in my opinion mostly a spare time activity if you are on the way to somewhere. At home or even on business travel if you have the choice between a big screen of the computer / laptop or the small one of the mobile phone what would you choose? The big one I suppose. And by the way - most private internet surfing is statistically during the week during work hours - that means in front of the big screen :-)
Seconded. Although mobile search has come a long way, it's still got some distance to go - particularly as speed and slower typing are issues which stop a lot of people from using mobile search as much as they otherwise would. -Jenni
I generally prefer not to do in-depth research on products or epic Wiki dives when I'm on a mobile device (unless, of course, I'm stuck waiting somewhere). I suspect, however, that this will change as phones develop HD projectors, faster processors, and additional accessories that make mobile devices not only more similar to desktops and laptops, but a suitable replacement for them.
Thanks for the always-compelling insight, Rand. I agree that efforts to replicate an entire site for mobile are not necessary. However, I don't believe that extends to marketing landing pages. When I look at some of our landing pages - pages that we've spent a fair amount of time optimizing - on mobile devices, I think maybe I die a little! :) I do think marketing would be wise to put effort and resources towards ensuring that landing pages are optimized for the smaller screen.
To that end, I'd also be curious to hear your thoughts regarding conversion funnel optimization for mobile devices. For businesses that have a rather involved/lengthy conversion process, finding ways to ease the burden of mobile-based conversion could be a significant victory as mobile activity continues to explode. Thoughts?
One huge barrier to utilizing the same site for mobile as for PCs is the use of Flash. It's well known that Apple has no interest in developing the ability to display Flash websites on any of their devices. As long as they continue to have significant market share in mobile devices it is not realistic for using a non-mobile website with Flash elements as the version shown to smart phone users.
I'm seeing over 60% of mobile traffic coming from Apple devices with my clients - most of which are using Flash elements on their main websites. Maybe this convergence or parity will mean the end of usage for Flash and the adoption of other technologies, but as long as Flash is part of the PC version of websites, the PC version of the site will not be a substitute for a mobile website.
Good Post. Future of Mobile Search = Local SEO.
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Great post! I do agree that mobile phones are, and will be the mostly used device for searching information online. With so many smartphones powered by advanced cell phone applications in them, why we will use other devices for search purpose. Mobile phones are handy, and we can access the Internet any time, irrespective of location. Is this not enough to think that in the coming years, cell phones will be the leading devices used for searching purpose. True! These small screen devices are creating huge impact in the world of online or mobile businesses.
Rand, at this point you probably know how much I disagree with many of your conclusions in this post, since you responded specifically to my longform response to it. Thought you might be interested to see that I detailed 14 differences between smartphone search and desktop search in Google in my Search Engine Land column this week. Still holding fast to your single set of SERPs theory?
Good post rand, this opens peoples eyes and makes them aware that mobile search is something big. I have been tracking a few keywords from mobile search over the last few months and the trends are good for specific keywords. More and more people looking on smart phones for keywords. More emphasis needs to be places on mobile friendly websites.
I'm dreaming a website seems like google maps. We add a meta tag which tells the location of our service, to our web sites. Google collects them and brings the locations related to our search text. Here is a new job for SEO.
Great article and compelling thoughts. Lots of things are going to change as mobile search evolves.
I read a report in the fall Google prepared on search behaviour. Although search is still on the rise it was no suprise to me that the 'after search' platform of choice was moving more to the mobile platform. So does this mean that people are off work and running around searching for things on the smartphones - or are they simply 'away from work' and their platform of choice is their smartphone?
I've seen changes even in our own household. My family will be watching a TV program while someone is using the iPad to look up stats on the actors and others are using their Android to search forums for comments or rating.
There is no doubt that mobile is going to keep changing the way search and SEO are defined. The next few years are goign to be exciting.
From a user perspective, the main reasons my mobile search usage has increased out of sight recently, are:
1. my big old quad-core dell overheats, so i turn it off at home when not using it actively. ie cooking dinner. The time it takes to boot up isn't worth the hassle or wait, when there's a phone nearby for quick searches.
2.i love doing a local business search on my phone when its going to have a clickable phone number in the results. No more kicking the kids off warcraft/runescape, to do a quick search, then needing to write down/memorise the number.
3. android 2.2 has the search box on the home screen.
Speed and practicalities always win.
I've just stumbled on this. Not used it myself, but it looks cool.
It's a piece of code that automatically resizes images based on what size browser you're viewing a webpage in --> https://tinysrc.net/
Potentially a neat tool for sites that are also to be viewed on mobile phones.
Does anyone have any experience of this tool?
While I'm sure the engines take advantage of the extra data sometimes associated with mobile queries (timely/precise location data, etc.) I tend to think that mobile results shouldn't (and usually don't) vary all that much from desktop queries. Unfortunately, mobile SEO and the mobile web has been sold so hard to people over the years, it's hard to tell clients or prospects that. I routinely come across people who have been led to believe that they need an entirely separate mobile site and an entirely separate mobile SEO strategy (or even a second agency that specializes in mobile SEO.)
Interesting!
Mobile has been full of promise for over 10 years! In 2000 I worked for a location-based services company which was in the middle of the LBS frenzy at the time. The predictions were that in a few years everything would be mobile. What held us back then was battery power to power GPS devices and screen colour and resolution. Over the last 5 years both have advanced rapidly and so we are seeing the huge growth in mobile that was predicted.
Apps have caught the imagination and I feel will contunue to be the way forward for mobile...I don't want to even think back to what preceeded apps...WAP! Everybody had nightmares about WAP and hence a whole host or WAP is crap type comments evolved and killed it dead. Apps however put a wrapper around the technology to present useful functionality rather then technology.
App SEO will probably be in the spotlight for a while...just how to get your app noticed when 1000s are being produced every day! And guess what...link building seems to be the preferred approach. Working with other app providers to cross promote apps. Iguess that makes Apple the Google of the mobile app market.
SEO-Himanshu and I had a mini debate re mobile search after your 7 Predictions for SEO in 2011, where #5 on the list was 'Mobile Will Have a Negligible Effect on Search/SEO'.
As with most everything else in business, decisions to invest in mobile-only sites usually come down to money. According to the Comscore mobile report referenced in that discussion, the majority of smartphone users still didn't access a browser (34% did) and only 5.5% of users accessed an online retail site in the US. I have to agree with Rand therefore when he says "Unless your site/content is seriously challenging for mobile users, even those with fast, impressive devices, you should worry more about other marketing avenues."
Every company without exception has a limited budget. When you have a straight choice between improving your existing site performance, or moving that budget towards a still (relatively) tiny online audience, it seems like a no brainer.
I think I'll still wait for mobile and laptop/desktop experience to converge before throwing money/resource at it.
Local search on mobile devices is always going to be more applicable to services such as food and drink, and where the nearest petrol station is for example. As mobile devices get better, and as more people opt to use devices such as ipads, I agree that we will see search trends matching those of laptops and desktops.
Interesting to note the projections of smartphone penetration in the US. Would be great to compare them to other developed countries as well as emerging mobile markets such as Africa. @Trends_2011 on Twitter
Hey Rand - thanks a lot for this. I doubt very much that you're an anomaly in your view of mobile (I tend to think quite similarly) but thought it might be worth getting in touch with Bryson Meunier to get some of the queries that he mentioned in this study (https://www.brysonmeunier.com/differences-in-mobile-smartphone-ranking-and-desktop-web-ranking-in-google-search/) he released on NYE. I think it would be very interesting for you two to look at the same data set and see where you both end up especially as he was reporting some listings changing rank by at least 2 places in the study.
In general though, really enjoyed the post and always interesting to hear your thoughts on this stuff. The need for a separate ad strategy is crucial though - great call on this in particular.
Thanks a lot!
Sam, thanks for noticing the study I did on desktop versus smartphone results in Google. As you mentioned, the smartphone results were actually quite different than the desktop results, contrary to what Rand says above. In fact, 86% of the smartphone queries were ranked differently than the desktop queries, some by more than ten positions. And this is based on pretty significant data: more than 1100 queries out of a total of 25k for five client domains in different industries.
Rand, I'm glad you are discussing this topic, as I think you're probably not as anomalous as you might think, and mobile search has the potential to change what we as SEOs do. However, I couldn't disagree more with your conclusions. I've posted a detailed response here if you're interested, and posted a response to your original prediction in Search Engine Land earlier this month.
Appreciate what you do, even if we don't agree on this particular topic.
Best,
Bryson
In general I think that mobile search will continue to converge with normal search as the smartphone trend continues with the exception that mobile on the go searches are obviously going to be more local in nature. That shouldn't change anything in regards to SEO though as the businesses most likely to be searched in those instances (e.g. restaurants) already have a need for local search optimization. As for designing sites for mobile, I only recommend this when the analytics data shows (or the business model dictates) that a sizeable number of users will be accessing the site with text style mobile browsers. I for one get annoyed when I browse to a site on my palm pre and end up on the text mobile version. As smartphone adoption increases that sentiment will increase along with it.
I dont know rand, i see big ranking shifts when searching on my phone compared to laptop.
Im in the mobile niche so ive observed quite a bit of difference. My site alone is a clear example.
Anyway just do a search for supernatural season 6 on both pc and phone and you will straight away notice wikipedias double listing gone on the phone not to mention a few other changes to rankings.
Are you in the UK? Just done that same search here in the UK (in Google.co.uk) on both a mobile and on a PC ... both sets of results are the same.
@paulmartin
@seo ohio
Im in australia and searched on google.com on both platforms
Performed Google search in Cincinnati, OH and on Android; results are the same exept on the phone the paid sponsor listing is not there at the top of the SERP and number 6 and 7 were in reverse order, almost identical SERPs including the same two videos presented in the 4 spot under "Video Results".
Yeah the smartphones are more popular than ever and the dumb-phones are getting better browsers, but I don't think that we will see huge change in the mobile trafic this in the next 2 years. Why?
As an ex-writer for PhoneArena I can tell you that all the geeks out there are asking which phone has the best web browser that supports flash/html5/can-boil-eggs/etc. but in the end the normal users prefer apps that uses less trafic and is faster (Opera Mini for example). So many people wanted Opera Mini for iPhone that I was like "wtf? iPhone got the best-ever-award-winning-browser-of-all-time-etc who cares for this crippled browser". But in the real life I use only bookmarked sites on my phone although I got unlimited data plan. I still prefer the PC/laptop for doing business stuff and the phone for showing off (like "look babe I can't find your address in seconds using my generation 3000 phone").
People are using mobile phones more day by day to carry out tasks that they normally do on their computers, emails, networking, documents, notes, diary, these are just some of the things we do on our mobile phones, I think business will need to invest into a mobile computable site which will allow users easy flexability and quick access.
For the most part websites show up the same on a mobile as they do on a PC; I do not see the need to have a specific website for mobile other than operating a specific mobile marketing strategy and making more money from expanded contracts.
For consideration:
If you have phone numbers embedded in an image file the phone number will not be a clickable link on your mobile offering that convenient one touch emailing and calling feature.
Android 2.1 still does not offer Flash support out of the factory so if your website relies on an embedded video remember that many of the more "price-conscious" consumers out therer are seeing a blank space were your video should be.
Great article Rand and great followup Mozzerz.
Thanks!
While we saw Google(https://www.google.com/m/), Yahoo(https://mobile.yahoo.com/search) introduced mobi search engines, we assume that it will re-define the search queries..even its quite differnt for many more queries from PC to mobi devices..all the search queries are little different from PC to mobiles...Rand enlighted about the the fact of growing smartphone users..but we should focuse on how much mobile internet users we are getting besides the smartphones!Morgan Stanley’s analysts believe that, based on the current rate of change and adoption, the mobile web will be bigger than desktop Internet use by 2015.Here you can find some stories that mobi web will dominating one by 2015:https://mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/ , from Performics graph we can see ,Clicks from mobile devices increased 400% from Jan. to Nov, last year : https://blog.performics.com/search/2010/12/was-2010-the-year-for-mobile-search.html...
Being an Indian, I am gving you a small example of trends in only mobi web market in India...In 2010, mobile internet users in India will stand at 12.1 million which will go up to 30 million in 2011, 65.1 million in 2012 and 114.2 million in 2013 according to emarketers!So there is great future ahead in terms mobi search...another point is while Google,CEO Eric Schmidt, told on Mobile World Congress, last year ""mobile first,""[https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359752,00.asp], we are aware about the fact the numbers and future of mobi search and mobi search markers will be glowing...
Hi Rand,
Awesome post. One thing perhaps to keep in mind regarding the top mobile searches being 'similar (and surprisingly non-local) to the top general searches of the year' is that (it seems to me anyway) locational searches will naturally tend to fragment the query so as to make them less likely to show up in a 'top 10' type list.
For example, maybe 'steakhouse' (or whatever) is a very popular search, but it is fragmented into 'steakhouse los angeles', 'steakhouse in new york', etc., etc. I think it's going to be hard for any local search in general to beat out huge trending topics like the oil spill or Lady Gaga (so sad that there is parity there, but anyway...).
But perhaps if we were to look at some some of aggregate of the 'tail' with locational modifers in mind, there might be a more meaningful set of data and/or an emerging trend.
Just a thought, and I could be totally missing something about the analysis...
Phil
Nowadays Mobile Search growing Very fast, That's why companies nowadays optimize their site using latest Mobile optimization technologies. Hope this will work . Excellent post rand.