A successful mobile search campaign has two critical components, technical compliance and contextual efficiency.

1. SMX London 2014
Mobile Search Best Practices

2. Search Powers Apps
2
0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000
*Apple Maps
Yahoo Stocks
Apple App Suite
*Google Maps
Gmail
Pandora Radio
*YouTube
*Google Search
*Google Play
Facebook
Avg. Monthly Smartphone Visitors
Source: ComScore 2014 U.S. Digital Future in Focus
Search
48%
Other
52%
Search Apps vs. Other
86% of time on iOS and Android devices is spent on apps

3. 3
Search Experience Optimization
• Experiential Content
• Design for Emotion
• Technical Compliance

4. Mobile is the Strategy
4

5.  mad men
 whiskey
 old fashioned
Mobile Search Data and SERP Analysis
Identify In-Demand Content:
• Understand your audience personas
• Audit social search results for in-demand media
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Source: Google Trends
Mobile
45%
Tablets
12%
Laptops
43%
Searches by Devices
old fashioned

6. Site Experience
6

7. Mobile User Experience
• Embrace mobile design constraints
• Optimize for PageSpeed
• Focus on goals and the path of least resistance
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Mobile friendly video
content.
Properly sized
tap targets.
Legible font sizes.Small screen sizes and
slow connections.
Source: Google PageSpeed Insights

8. Design for Conversion
Make it easy and fun for users to create content
and complete tasks:
• Minimize requirements
• Use HTML5 input elements if possible
• Use autocomplete, autocapitalize, autocorrect
• Show completion progress where applicable
• Implement client-side validation
• Use top-aligned and/or in-field labels
• Test forms on iOS and Android devices
• Test form designs with keyboard in view
• Favor new content input methods
– camera, mic, location
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9. Supported Mobile Configurations
DYNAMIC SERVING
Different HTML on the same URL based on user agent
SEPARATE MOBILE URLS
Separate mobile website best hosted on a subdomain
RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGN (recommended)
CSS drives the experience mostly based on screen size
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10. Dynamic Serving
JavaScript agent detection generates different HTML on one URL:
– Most difficult for Google to interpret
– Slower than other configurations
– Requires Vary: User-Agent in HTTP header
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GET /page-1 HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
(...rest of HTTP request headers...)
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Vary: User-Agent
Content-Length: 5710
(... rest of HTTP response headers...)

11. Separate Mobile Site
Hosts a mobile version of each page on a subdomain (m.example.com)
– Fastest of the three configurations
– Most complex setup, most maintenance, and most prone to error
– Not a solution for large screens
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12. Separate Mobile URLs Done Correctly
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• A desktop search returns the
desktop page
• A mobile search returns the
corresponding mobile page

13. Responsive Web Design
• Responsive web design is the recommended configuration:
– Avoids the complicated setup of a separate mobile site
– Consolidates all experiences to one URL
– More future-ready as new devices become mainstream
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14. Selecting the Right Configuration
The primary drawback to responsive web design is load time:
– RWD is the future, but is currently slow and not feature-phone compliant
– A separate mobile site is the fastest and most tailored mobile experience
– The future of RWD includes adaptive content and dynamic properties
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2.81
13.55
11.64
0
5
10
15
Separate Mobile Site RWD Desktop
Average Load Time in Seconds
Source: High Performance Responsive Design By Tom Barker – O'Reilly Media

15. Mobile First Social Search Networks
Mobile first social networks are surging:
• Camera content is driving traffic and engagement
• Emerging networks have virtually no laptop traffic
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Source: ComScore 2014 U.S. Digital Future in Focus
99%
PINTEREST
98%
INSTAGRAM
99%
VINE
86%
TWITTER

16. Prepare for Google Now
Next generation search minimizes the need for search queries:
• Improved support for natural language and question answering
• Improved context and location awareness
• Increased personalization around user personas
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17. 17

18. 18
GLOBAL SMARTPHONE PENETRATION
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Spain
France
Italy
UK
Germany
Japan
USA
With Smartphones Without Smartphones
Source: ComScore MobiLens, 3 month average ending July 2013. Figures in millions.
74%
59%
59%
70%
59%
36%
60%

19. 19
MOBILE IS DAILY LIFE
use their smartphone to visit
a social network every day 53%
Source: Google Our Mobile Planet: United Kingdom May 2013 – http://goo.gl/7HpOII
search on their smartphone
every day54%

20. 20
17%
ON-THE-GO
MOBILE NEVER SLEEPS
A mobile user is more likely to be at home than on the go!
68%
ATHOME
2%
INASTORE
9%
ATWORK
Source: Google – Creating Moments that Matter

21. 21
MOBILE IS ROUTINE
Source: ComScore 2014 U.S. Digital Future in Focus

22. 22
MOBILE CLOSES THE DEAL
Source: Google – Creating Moments that Matter
of mobile searches result in
conversions 28%
of mobile searches trigger
additional action and
conversions
73%

23. SEPARATE MOBILE URL CHECKLIST
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Requirement Details
Sitemap Alternate: Alternate URL appears in sitemap
Page Alternate: Alternate URL appears on page via rel=“alternate” tag
Alternates Match: Alternate URLs in sitemap and on page must match exactly
Canonical Match: Mobile canonical URL must match desktop canonical and sitemap URL
Mobile Page Web Response: The mobile page should return a 302 redirect to web users
Mobile Page Web Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Mobile Page Smartphone Response: The mobile page should return a 200 status code to smartphone users
Mobile Page Smartphone Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Mobile Page Mobile Response: The mobile page should return a 200 status code to feature phone users
Mobile Page Mobile Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Desktop Page Web Response: The desktop page should return a 200 status code to web users
Desktop Page Web Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Desktop Page Smartphone Response: The desktop page should return a 302 redirect to smartphone users
Desktop Page Smartphone Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Desktop Page Mobile Response: The desktop page should return a 302 redirect to feature phone users
Desktop Page Mobile Vary: Use Vary: User-Agent in the HTTP header
Source: http://goo.gl/ytqD55

24. CITED AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Google
• Mobile Search Moments Study: http://goo.gl/X6Gg7u
• Mobile Path to Purchase: Five Key Findings: http://goo.gl/yT4XDH
• Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites: http://goo.gl/o0pOFS
• Our Mobile Planet: http://goo.gl/yTGIkY
Other
• Developing Web Content for Safari: http://goo.gl/RFTh9M
• Organizing Mobile: http://goo.gl/rIEuyR
• Google Lays Out It’s Mobile User Experience Strategy:
http://goo.gl/WatWwS
• 2014 U.S. Digital Future in Focus: http://goo.gl/KWGVM1
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