Search has been a critical factor in the digital marketing space for many years now. Mobile is becoming a very important channel in the digital marketing mix, and what is more, the mobile channel is increasingly being used for search.
Google reported a staggering 500% increase in mobile search volumes in the 24 months up to May 2010 (Google Blog, 2010).

What this means is that mobile and search are coming together in a big way - so if your target audience is using mobile in any significant volume, you need to have a digital presence that is optimised for mobile search, both organic and paid.

What does optimising for mobile search entail? Making sure that your normal website ranks well in mobile search queries? Creating an entirely new mobile website to satisfy these visitors? And what factors play a role in ranking in mobile search - are they the same as for normal websites? Also, is paid search different in the mobile space? This article will aim to answer some of these queries.

What's the Demand?

The very first port of call would be to ascertain whether your target audience is in fact using mobile devices. Look at your analytics data. There's no point in spending too much time on mobile if your audience isn't. But also bear in mind that if you have no optimised mobile presence, a lack of mobile traffic may be reflecting your current performance, rather than lack of search interest.

If you want to judge demand, a good way is to use a keyword tool that offers data on mobile searches. The Google keyword tool offers this. Simply pop in the search term you want to test, used the "advanced search" settings to filter by mobile, and voila! The result will indicate the average number of times that term was searched for, via mobile, per month. You can see global data as well as per country.

Search Psychology in the Mobile Space

When tackling anything search related, you need to consider the mindset of the searcher you aim to target. What are their aims, what kind of keywords might they use, and what factors inform these choices? This is especially critical for mobile search, since the mobile device is very different in form and the context in which it's often used, as compared to desktop or laptop based searches. A key task is to find out how your target market uses search on their phones, and then work out how to leverage that in line with your marketing objectives.

Some Points on Mobile Search Habits

Navigational: Mobile searchers are often using search to find their way to a property that they already have in mind. So if you're doing brand awareness campaigns, make sure to have your assets optimised for search, and/or paid search campaigns set up. Make sure that you can capitalise on the navigational search traffic that will result.

Location Sensitive: Mobile search is often used by people on the move, and as such is used for location sensitive searches. This means searches that have specific locations included in the search terms e.g. "thai restaurant cape town". In this regard, businesses with physical presences need to be prepared to take advantage.

Hurried: Mobile users are often in a hurry. Make sure that your assets offer a fast, painless way for the searcher to find the information that they're looking for. This will assist greatly in converting them to your goals. Bear this in mind also with keyword planning (and bidding) - users are likely to type in shorter queries.

Search Engine Optimisation for Mobile Sites

Format content for mobile: A key point to remember when optimising a site for mobile search, is that it is important to have content properly formatted for mobile consumption. As always, search engines are looking to deliver the best (and most relevant) experience to their users. With mobile devices, surfing the web is often a more painful experience than on the desktop web. Screens are small; input is finicky. Sites that bear this in mind and cater for it are likely to achieve better rankings. Although, being early days for the mobile web, there are not always enough properly formatted sites to deliver on this for every search. But a point to note on this is that even if you do rank (without a nicely formatted mobile experience) you will likely struggle to convert.

Download speed: The factor of download speed is becoming more pertinent in normal SEO - this will certainly be an issue in mobile SEO. Users are often paying for their bandwidth, and time is short, so make sure your site loads fast.

Local search: Location specific queries are a big part of mobile search. If you're a physical business, capitalise on this by creating (and optimising) a Google places listing. Encourage user reviews online to boost your Google places ranking.

"Normal" SEO factors: Whatever you do - don't forget the basics!  On page factors such as your page titles, keyword deployment and meta description are still important (especially page titles). Bear in mind with keywords, that search queries are usually shorter, and more to the point (given the constraints of the medium). Meta descriptions (the page's description as shown in the search results) are also shown in shorter formats in mobile search results. Optimise accordingly.

Sitemaps are important for mobile. Google is still in the phase of discovering mobile sites to crawl, and can be aided in discovering your content by submission of a mobile sitemap. Check Google's Webmaster Tools for instructions. Other barriers to having your site crawled, such as content behind login barriers, and broken links, still apply.

There is some debate as to whether inbound links are as important in mobile SEO as in "normal" SEO. I would advise that it is still a good idea to generate inbound links, especially from other mobile sites.

Paid Search Advertising on Mobile

Paid search is very active in the mobile space, as the mobile advertising industry is taking off, and search volumes are simultaneously growing. Here are a few points to bear in mind for the setup of mobile PPC campaigns.

Campaign setup: You should create separate paid search campaigns for mobile. This is so that your messaging, ad format, landing pages etc. can be tailored for the mobile environment. You can also manage the performance and spend separately as befits this separate marketing channel. Google allows targeting of ads to specific mobile devices.

A question that has come up in our work is whether the click through rate, and cost of acquisition, is better or worse than in desktop search. The truthful answer is - it depends. If you simply mimic your existing paid search campaigns on mobile platforms, there's every chance that you'll see lower click through rates and conversions. But campaigns tailored for mobile, such as those relevant to location sensitive queries, those serving an immediate need, and crafted specifically with mobile in mind, could see higher response rates.

Measurement: Measurement of the full value of your campaigns can be a problem. People are often in a hurry in mobile search, and not in an exploring mind set. Your ad might be seen, noted, and acted on off-platform, thus not generating a click. In desktop PPC campaigns, we show a dedicated PPC campaign phone number in the ad. That way, you can count all calls to that number as conversions for the PPC campaign, without the click.

To take this one step further, "click to call" ads offer an exciting development. The user clicks (on their phone), the click is recorded, and the call is made directly. Direct response on a whole new level! This is just one example of an exciting innovation in paid search with interesting implications in the mobile space, but I suspect more are on the way.

Landing pages are also key in mobile PPC. A page that is badly designed or simply not formatted for mobile, is going to frustrate the mobile user, and conversion rates will suffer. As usual, try to get the tightest fit between keyword, ad copy, and landing page.

Positioning: This issue is relevant for paid and organic search. With less screen space, less ads (or search results) are being shown above the fold. As such, it is more important than ever to rank well (for organic) or bid enough to get your position up (for PPC).

Wrapping it Up

These are just a few considerations for search marketers in the mobile space, based on our experience thus far. Mobile search is a relatively new field, and we're constantly learning. It's a dynamic space as new advertising models and formats emerge and compete for attention, and new devices change the game regularly. I hope this has been useful, and I'd love to hear from you in the comments.

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