iSEO Doing Mobile Search Optimization Right

ISEO: MOBILE SEARCH ENGINEOPTIMIZATION DONE RIGHTData-driven Mobile SEO for SmartphonesBryson MeunierDirector, Content SolutionsResolution Media@brysonmeunier+Bryson Meunier

MOBILE SEARCH OPTIMIZATION CRITICAL • Differences in smartphone ranking • Differences in mobile search engagement: “A drop from first to fourth position on mobile phone can mean a CTR drop off of more than 90%.” Google, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth • Mobile Search Traffic to eclipse desktop search traffic in years, not decades 2

MANY PATHS TO MOBILE OPTIMIZATION Smartphone Tablet One optimized? optimized? URL Mobile Content and Keywords? Mobile Site? Feature phone optimized? Mobile URL Site that works Same well on all Content and devices? Keywords? 3

APPARENT DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN GOOGLE Matt Cutts recommends mobile URLs and says mobile sites don’t cause canonicalization issues if redirected in Februray 2011 Google Webmaster Team selects responsive design for “maintainability” in May 2012 blog post 4

DATA TO THE RESCUE Mobile Mobile Smartphone Search Search Search Strategies of Queries Results Top Sites 5

KEYWORD AND CONCEPT RESEARCH CRITICAL TO SEO • “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.” • Design and Content Guidelines, Google Webmaster Guidelines • “Anticipating these differences in search behavior and accounting for them while writing your content (using a good mix of keyword phrases) could produce positive results” • “Designing your site around your visitors needs while making sure your site is easily accessible to search engines usually produces positive results.” • Google SEO Starter Guide 6

GOOGLE QUERIES REVEAL DIFFERENCES IN SEARCH BEHAVIOR• Analyzed mobile and desktop volumes for top keywords according to Adwords Keyword Tool and Google Insights for Search• Mobile Search accounts for 22% of all Google searches on average according to sample 7

GOOGLE QUERIES REVEAL DIFFERENCES IN SEARCH BEHAVIOR • Same Keywords, Different Frequencies Internet & Telecom Finance Dining and Nightlife • 77% of total • 88% of • 69% of [apps search volume searches for for android] for [atm] and [restaurants], and 73% of 99% of volume 97% of [download from [atm searches for ringtones] locations] [bars] and 80% searches come comes from of searches for from mobile mobile devices [restaurants devices near me] come from mobile devices 8

DIFFERENT SEARCH BEHAVIOR REQUIRES DIFFERENT CONTENT TOACHIEVE SEARCHER GOALS QUICKLY 9

SOME CATEGORIES NEED DEDICATED MOBILE SITES 10

WHAT CONTENT APPEARS IN SMARTPHONE SEARCH RESULTS? • Tested mobile SEO best practices by examining 37 different ranking factors of top three sites appearing for 11 competitive mobile searches across different categories. • Ranking factors include • Code validation • Mobile usability and page speed • On-page factors • Engagement data • Site Authority • Data pulled manually on one day in December 2010, May 2011 and May 2012 (post Skip Redirect/Old Possum)Download the white paper at 11

TRUE OR FALSE?: VALIDATION IS KEY “Use100% valid XHTML 1.0 code. […] Many optimizers on the traditional WWW do not consider using valid code as a best practice. Mobile search engines however may have more trouble digesting invalid code.” -Andy Hagans, (circa 2005) MobileSearchMarketing.com (#4 in Google for “mobile SEO”) FALSEDownload the white paper at 12

TRUE OR FALSE?: MOBILE USABILITY/PAGE SPEED IS HELPFUL “MOBILE SEO RULE NUMBER ONE: if youre trying to attract a mobile audience, then youd better be good at it and youd better give them an elegant user experience! -DotMobi (circa 2008), Mobithinking.com (#1 in Google for “mobile SEO”) “Getting from needs to actions lightning fast is especially important on smaller devices like mobile phones, where screen size is limited and context really matters.” Larry Page, Google CEO in 2012 Letter to Investors FALSEDownload the white paper at 13

TRUE OR FALSE?: LINKBUILDING IS UNNECESSARY “But right now, partly because of the relative lack of competition and partly because as I explained above, the link graph makes less sense for mobile sites and users, links are not needed for (at least some) mobile rankings. -Will Critchlow (circa 2008), SEOMoz.org FALSEDownload the white paper at 14

TRUE OR FALSE?: DOTMOBI HELPS “The best way to build your mobile web site for SEO is by using the dotMobi domain” -DotMobi (circa 2008), Mobithinking.com (#1 in Google for “mobile SEO”) FALSEDownload the white paper at 15

TRUE OR FALSE?: MOBILE SITES HELP RANKING “The best Mobile SEO strategy is to not have a mobile SEO strategy.” -Ryan Jones (circa 2011), SearchEngineJournal.com (#3 in Google for “mobile SEO”) “Having a mobile site is strongly correlated with top three rankings in Google smartphone search” -Bryson Meunier (circa 2012), SearchEngineLand.com TRUEDownload the white paper at 16

HOW DO TOP SITES APPROACH MOBILE SEO? • Looked at mobile SEO redirect strategies of top 100 sites that get most overall organic search traffic 17

MAJORITY OF TOP SITES HAVE A MOBILE SEO STRATEGY Majority of top sites are redirecting smartphone Googlebot after just 5 monthsFull study at 18

MAJORITY OF TOP SITES USE MOBILE URLS More than half of sites redirect to mobile URLs 19

MOBILE URLS DO NOT RESULT IN LOST ORGANIC TRAFFIC 20

DATA-DRIVEN MOBILE SEO BEST PRACTICES 1. Understand the differences between what your mobile user expects and what your desktop user expects and build your mobile site accordingly 2. Build a mobile home page at m.domain.com that addresses the mobile user’s goals with link to full site and responsive duplicate pages OR build a mobile first responsive design driven site if goals are same. 3. Do not block your mobile URLs with robots.txt. Use canonical tags for duplicate URLs and redirect smartphone URLs to smartphone Googlebot but make mobile homepage unique to appear for mobile navigational searches (i.e. [brand + “mobile site”]) 4. Market your mobile site externally in print and broadcast advertising and online. Links, authority and social shares still matter in mobile. 5. Don’t believe everything you read. Many consultants are applying traditional SEO best practices to mobile, which doesn’t always translate. Trust but verify. For 25 more visit 21

THANK YOU! Bryson Meunier Director, Content Solutions Resolution Media bmeunier@resolutionmedia.com http://www.brysonmeunier.com http://www.resolutionmedia.com @brysonmeunier +Bryson Meunier Scan to visit m.brysonmeunier.com

iSEO Doing Mobile Search Optimization Right

by Bryson Meunier on Jun 06, 2012

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