Mobile internet usage is growing at an astonishing rate. According to Cisco’s Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast, global mobile data traffic will increase by a factor of 26 by 2015. That’s a jump from 0.24 exabytes per month (in 2010), to 6.3 exabytes per month. (An exabyte is 1 billion GB). Cisco’s report also projects the number of users only surfing the web via mobile device will swell to more than 780 million by 2015.

Some takeaways from the article:

• 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone
• Last year, we [Google] began to limit ad serving on high-end mobile devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content
• Ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords

Mobile website optimization now factors into mobile search ads quality – Google Mobile Ads Blog.

Start off with a clean slate

Don’t be tempted to create your mobile campaigns as you would your regular, PC based campaigns.  Best practices in PC search campaigns may not hold water in mobile. So that means no copying your existing campaign, targeting to mobile and calling it a day. And don’t think you can just let mobile piggyback on a campaign that is targeting PC computers either.  Don’t do it! The same way you separate your search and display campaigns, so you must do with mobile! Kerri Smith from Range Online Media says to take it a step further and really speak to your mobile audience. Call to actions like “Call Now” and “…from your SmartPhone” suggest to users that your ad is relevant and made specifically for mobile search. Take the time to create and test new keyword lists. While doing this, remember that…

Less is more

Benny Blum from esearchvision shared some findings on his experimentation with mobile ads.  Contrary to what we usually see in PC SEM campaigns, shorter phrases are the way to go in mobile.  Mobile long tail keyword searches are virtually non-existent, and conversion rates actually go down as the query gets longer. If there are generic, short keywords that don’t work well in your PC search campaigns, mobile may be the place to test them out again.

Be mobile ready…and be mobile ready now

Jesse Haines from Google stressed the importance of being “mobile ready” with your website. With the help of some screen shots, she illustrated how many prominent brands didn’t have their websites optimized for mobile search…and also showed some that did, along with their telltale revenues that validate their efforts.  With lower CPCs and less competition than traditional search, now is the time to get on the mobile search bandwagon, before all your competitors wise up and do it before you and leave you weeping in the dust.

Phone giant, T-mobile is the first to jump into action replacing their default on-line portal with Google instead of Yahoo. T-mobile states however, some Yahoo based services will continue, such as Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger.

Google will now be the central portal search engine, meaning that this will be available to those users who do no not have smart phones.

The change will not be harmful or helpful to both search engine powerhouse.

How Does T-Mobile’s Decision Affect Mobile Search Engine Optimization

Greg Sterling of Search Engine Land says that “…the T-Mobile ‘default’ relationship doesn’t necessarily help Google or harm Yahoo in a major way. There will be some incremental loss or gain (depending on which company we’re talking about) in search query volume and related clicks however.”

Jennifer Gayadin is a SEO Search Strategist for Path Interactive, a NYC Search Marketing Firm

Listen Now!

Show Synopsis:

Allocution: Gaining an Audience via Social Media and the Web!
Larry explains how networking is farming and not hunting. He’ll show you some effective tactics for long term success. He discusses specific ways to use the web for follow up and how to get someone to be a referral and/or reference source. I comment on building your audience online. We also take calls and emails on the subject, so listen now!