Mobile Search Marketing

Mobile search is in the early stages and as technology improves so will the search capability for local and mobile applications.  Optimizing your website for mobile search is becoming more important than ever.  Search engine marketing for mobile search remains an important part of the future search equation.

Web Pro News recently reported that a Google executive was quoted saying, “In three years’ time, desktops will be irrelevant.” That’s debatable, but there’s no question that mobile use will have grown much more than it already has. Based on comments in a recent keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem to think PC use is going to drop too much, but he did say, “Mobile queries are just going to keep going up and up and up.”  A mobile search study released last month found that the number of mobile phone subscribers is on track to increase from 4.6 billion to 5 billion globally by the end of 2010. Another study found that consumers are getting more comfortable with mobile shopping.

Mobile Search

Google has dominated the search engine market for a few years and while this still continues to be the case, it is critical to note that search in general changes with mobile. Consumers are searching in more ways, so the issue is not simply what their favorite search engine is. They are using different applications like mobile phone, video games and television. People are scanning barcodes for instant access to product information. The number of ways consumers are finding information with their phones is only going to keep increasing. On mobile, it’s not just about Google, Yahoo, and Bing.   That is not to say these three aren’t still incredibly important to mobile. In fact, the search share among these top search engines may even become more greatly divided as time goes on. We’re seeing different mobile carriers and manufacturers making deals with these companies, which affect the default search options for various devices.

Mobile search engine use may be largely dictated by device popularity, which is one of the biggest things Bing will have going in its favor in terms of market share, Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 phones will come with Bing hardware keys, meaning the most convenient way to search on these devices will likely be to hit a single button taking the user to Bing. If these devices become popular, it could be huge for Microsoft in search.  As far as Google indexing and mobile sites goes, Google’s Matt Cutts says, “If you can find a way where your existing site will work well in mobile browsers, we’re not worrying about supporting two completely different sites.”  Help Google Index Your Mobile Site, and Running Desktop and Mobile Versions of Your Site.

Mobile Search Advertising

When it comes to AdWords, Google says to create separate, mobile-focused campaigns so you can optimize keywords, ad text, and landing pages for people using mobile devices. Google shared an interesting case study this week looking at Razorfish’s mobile AdWords approach. They shared the following details: Article was written by Chris Crum.

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