I once sat in front of a dark, Netflix-enabled flat-screen, watching Netflix on my iPhone. It was just easier, and I had it on, and I could switch back and forth with Facebook, and… ok, maybe I have a problem!

In any event, our personal fascination with mobile phones shouldn’t dictate our work decisions. And one question that needs deciding more and more these days is around mobile search: is there a mobile audience for this particular client? And how do we measure the success of our efforts to get a mobile website in front of mobile searchers?

Of course, our past experience with desktop search gives us a great starting point. Search volumes, traffic, and even rankings are useful metrics, both here and there. But mobile SEO brings some special considerations, not least of which is credibility: we need to prove that mobile SEO provides value.

To that end, I’ve been working on a set of metrics to help me get some perspectives on these questions. These aren’t replacements for visitor counts or conversions – rather, think of them as supplements to help us compare the new and somewhat unfamiliar mobile SEO data to our tried-and-true desktop data.

Today we’ll look at one of the most useful, particularly in the early stages of a campaign.

The Mobile Ratio

One of the challenges in getting started with mobile search is proving the value of your efforts: is anyone using a phone to search for this client’s products or services?

To answer that with a simple, understandable metric, I’ve added a Mobile Ratio to the keyword research process. Basically, I’ll start by taking a desktop keyword list, and running the numbers to add mobile figures alongside. I’ll also expand the list if I find any mobile-specific keywords that seem interesting.

Then I’ll take the desktop and mobile volumes, and divide one into the other to compute the Mobile Ratio. For example, if I have a Mobile Ratio of 10, then I can tell the client that for every ten desktop searchers, we have the opportunity to reach one mobile searcher.

Straightforward statements like that allow a client to get their bearings, and start to form a mental model of what mobile means to them. Maybe they’d really like to add another one-tenth to their reach. Or maybe they have easier ways of getting access to those extra eyeballs. Either way, they now have some useful infomation on which to base a decision.

Getting Granular

Doing this at both the keyword and aggregate level allows you to compare and contrast mobile activity for different keywords. So if my aggregate Mobile Ratio is 10, but I have a group of keywords that have ratios in the 5-6 range, then I know these keywords are mobile-heavy: they are more likely to be of interest to mobile users.

This is key info for site-planning and budgeting activities, as it can provide a business justfication for heavying-up on landing pages that address those keywords. Likely examples of keywords that are mobile-heavy could include coupon keywords, or keywords that include a location name.

The Mobile Ratio lets you identify keywords that are mobile-heavy. Here, "pocket knife" searches are strong, while branded searches ("Victorinox") are relatively light. Good inputs for planning a mobile content strategy. (Not one of my clients, by the way.)

Driving Strategy

In the end, the Mobile Ratio doesn’t create another data point. Instead, it offers a more intuitive way of looking at the data you already have, turning it into a KPI that you can use to make decisions about your mobile marketing plans.

In upcoming articles, we’ll take a look at some other useful metrics for managing mobile SEO.

According to Goldman, 7% of all online sales Kenshoo saw over the holidays came from a tablet, and “Of the sales transactions completed via mobile, over 83% of the revenue was driven through tablets, and overall tablet conversion rate was 2.72%, more than 3x higher the conversion rate for mobile phones.

Additionally, the average order value from tablets ($149.84) actually exceeded that of desktop computers ($146.07).”

On top of that, tablet ownership nearly doubled over the holidays, according to Pew Internet.

With numbers like these, it’s clear that there’s an opportunity for marketers in tablets in 2012. What’s not clear is what marketers need to do to target tablet searchers effectively.

Do tablet owners search? If so, how do they search, what do they search for, and is it different from desktop and/or mobile search? How can content owners and advertisers build content today to effectively engage this highly lucrative tablet segment?

Fortunately, there are some things that we know about tablet owners that can help us get a better sense of what they’re looking for and how to give it to them:

Tablet Owners Are Searchers

Not only do tablet users buy a lot on their tablets, but they search a lot too. According to Google research, tablet owners reported that searching was the second most frequent activity (with 78% of users responding that they search for information on their tablets) behind playing games.

Tablet searchers account for a significant portion of mobile searches, according to Performics, who reported tablet accounts for 34% of mobile impressions on average, and as much as 50% for some advertisers. Marin Software reports that tablet search accounted for 3% of total impressions and 4% of total clicks in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Tablet Search Behavior Is Different

Last week, Resolution Media spent two days with the search engines planning strategy for 2012. And while I can’t talk about most of what was discussed, both Google and Yahoo! made a point of saying that tablet search behavior is different than mobile or desktop search behavior, and that campaigns and ad groups should be separated by platform for the best performance.

Last year at SMX West, Jacquelyn Krones of Bing and Taylor Schreiner of Yahoo! presented research to this end on tablet searchers’ user experience and goals. Krones gave marketers a model for understanding tablet users’ needs based on Mission, Excavation, and Exploration:

Unlike mobile (i.e. smartphone and featurephone) searchers, tablet searchers are not focused on completing a task (Mission), but are instead using the search engines on their devices to find new and interesting content, without really knowing what they are looking to find (Exploration). And neither tablet nor mobile searchers are using their devices for multi-step problem solving (Excavation).

Indeed, a Yahoo! Research/Reprise Media study at that time on mobile and tablet search behavior called “Searching on Glass” indicates that tablet searchers are more likely to search different categories (e.g. Real Estate, Investing, TV/Cable) and less likely to search others (e.g. Insurance, Deposits, Brand) than mobile and PC users.

Tablet users are also searching at different times than mobile and PC users. According to Google research, desktop searchers search during the day, and tablet and mobile searchers search at night. Google later draws the conclusion that desktop and laptop computers are for work, and tablets are more for entertainment at home.

Tablet Searchers Are Not Quite Mobile

A lot of people consider a tablet a mobile device, but research shows that most people aren’t mobile when they’re using it. Most of them are, in fact, on the couch, watching TV, in the kitchen or in bed.

If you’re lumping tablets and smartphones in the same ad group, or serving content created for mobile users to tablet users, you could be serving your customers content they don’t want.

Google (or at least Maile Ohye) recommends serving desktop content to tablet users, as they more closely resemble desktop users than mobile users in terms of behavior; but Adobe says the best option is to build tablet optimized experiences, separate from mobile or desktop sites.

Tablet Searchers Are Not Quite PC Searchers

One reason to build separate experiences rather than providing desktop content to tablet searchers is that tablet searchers aren’t able to access certain technologies that PC users are. The iPad, for example, is the market leader with 58% market share, and none of them run Adobe Flash.

If you’re using Flash to run videos on your site, or if you have a restaurant or other local business that tablet or smartphone users are likely to visit and you have a user experience that relies on Flash, you have two choices in this era of smartphones and tablets:

1. get rid of it and build an experience in HTML5 that can be dynamic and accessible to multiple devices, or
2. be invisible to the majority of tablet and smartphone users and risk frustrating this large and growing audience and/or losing them as customers.

Tablet Searchers are Looking for…?

It’s strange that all three major search engines tell us that tablet search behavior is different, but give us only desktop keywords in keyword tools to help us develop relevant content.

You can find tablet keywords in analytics, of course.

In Google Analytics, it’s as simple as going to the mobile devices report and then filtering with the following regular expression to isolate popular tablets:

tablet|tab|pad|slate|thinkpad|viewpad|ipad|lifebook|nook|windpad|xoom|xtablet|flybook|g-slate|ideapad|kindle|modbook|multipad|olivepad|paddle|playbook|quadpad|slimbook|t-touch|tuftab

Select the secondary dimension “Keyword” to see what tablet owners are searching for.

The problem with this method, of course, is that you can only see keywords that your site is optimized for, and not keywords that you should be optimized for.

To see that, we want to use a keyword tool, but at the moment the only keyword tool that I know of that includes tablets is the Google Keyword Tool. It’s currently impossible to find popular tablet keywords with it, however, as they’re lumped in with smartphone keywords.

Given that tablet searchers have different needs and search behavior than desktop or mobile searchers, it’s likely that they also use different keywords with different frequencies. The Reprise Media/Yahoo! study hints at that with the different categories that they uncover, but marketers currently can’t do much keyword research on their own without a specific tablet breakout.

My hope is that Google and the other search engines break out tablet queries separately in the Google Keyword Tool and similar tools so that marketers can optimize the user experience based on what tablet searchers are looking for.

Google has optimized their user experience for each platform, so they must understand content owners’ desire to do the same for their users. If you want to join me in this request, please show your support in the Google Adwords Support Forum, where I’ve formally posted this feature request.

Until then, hopefully this information on tablet searchers and their intent gives you a better sense of of what’s necessary to target tablet searchers in this oft-described “year of the tablet”.

Happy (belated) New Year. Let’s face it, 2012 isn’t the first year someone has christened the “year of mobile.” But it is the first time consumers have done so – and continue to.

Still in the market for resolutions? Let me suggest 10 that’ll charge-up your brand to set pace – and lead – with mobile in 2012:

Think Mobile First

Smartphones most likely rang in 2012 by blowing past 100 million US subscribers. That means there’s a 50% chance your customers are now holding a smartphone; and 80% are using it to change how they shop. Plus, 2012 forecasts call for a 73% rise in m-commerce sales and 60% rise in tablet sales.

Resolution number one: challenge yourself to see your brand as mobile consumers do. Align marketing strategies with these expectations.

This may require difficult change – like relaxing desktop-biased ROI requirements that impair mobile resourcing. (The same “innovator dilemma” that trapped RIM!) Just do it.

Listen To Mobile Searchers

Google mobile query volume is up 400%. Smartphone and tablet keyword data is a goldmine for quantifying mobile impact and understanding intent.

Google began stripping this from organic search results in 2011. But they’re not yet stripping smartphone or tablet keyword data. (Read more here).

This will change (probably later this year), once marketers are more vested in mobile content. For now, resolve to take advantage: listen to what smartphone and tablet users want from you, while you can!

Invest In Mobile Pages

Consumers expect every desktop web page to have a relevant mobile equivalent.

In fact, lack of mobile content decreases mobile PPC quality score, drives 80% of mobile site abandonment, and forces nearly 20% of consumers to seek your competitors. Ouch!

Armed with data (as above), challenge yourself to prioritize and create mobile formatted content, starting with those that get traffic from smartphones and tablets. And don’t stop there! Continue optimizing smartphone and tablet pages for mobile SERP keyword rankings.

Connect With The Long-Tail

Mobile content needs to be accessible from any entry point. Last year, we found 81% of retail web pages fail to direct mobile consumers to relevant mobile pages.

We called this the invisible Web of mobile content. It’s a mobile ROI killer! Forge these connections between deep desktop and mobile pages. You help people buy more across mobile channels (Display, SMS, Email, Social, PPC).

With Google’s new smartphone bot, you also increase rankings in mobile SERPs for long-tail keyword searchers. Bonus!

Make Local Connections

Mobile users search with local and immediate intent. 60% visit a local business. 88% take action within the day.

Google Maps is the second most used app across iOS and Android. So claim, and optimize, business/store profiles to display at the top of mobile SERPs for your brand.

Go beyond Google Places/Maps and Bing Maps. Optimize for social networks that provide location information through apps too, like Facebook Places, now Foursquare, and others.

Simplify App Discovery

You’ve got iOS and Android apps. Discovery is the challenge. Fortunately, app profile pages can act like additional “sitelinks” in Google’s mobile SERPs. (See last month’s column on App SEO tips.)

Searching the app stores stinks. Help brand searchers discover your apps easily! If your apps are already ranked on the first page of mobile SERPs, try showing up for head terms.

Turn Searchers Into Followers

Mobile helps us be social. Devices already drive 55% of Twitter traffic, and 33% of Facebook’s. Like apps, social profiles also present opportunity to monopolize the first page of your mobile SERP listings.

So help motivated searchers find your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn, or other profiles on page 1 of mobile SERPs. Measure increases in follows, likes, and subscribers that result!

Don’t Ignore “App-tribution”

People prefer apps over web when using popular Social and Local services (Maps/Places, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare). The problem is, apps aren’t “referrers” (read more here).

As these apps increase in popularity, more of your clicks get classified as “direct” traffic. Challenge yourself in 2012 to be accurate with mobile attribution.

One method gaining traction among retailers: seed Local and Social profiles with branded redirect links that populate web analytics. By giving ROI credit to the right channel, you can optimize your marketing spend!

Give Thoughtful Shortcuts

You may have a complete digital presence (web, mobile, apps, social, locations, video, etc). Make it more inviting for mobile consumers to navigate!

Consider how QR technology can help. QR isn’t just for print; it can actually provide the perfect “screen-to-screen” mobile link that consumers expect for faster access and deeper engagement with your content. Here are a few cross-channel ideas:

• Mobile apps: Don’t make people search app stores. Displaying app QRs on your site increases downloading, engagement, and popularity.
• Store locator: Don’t make people type your address into the Maps app. Displaying QRs on your desktop page can launch a location on the device’s Map app.
• Product videos: People prefer to watch videos on their device. Displaying QRs on product pages can launch video content and drive mobile viewing and sharing metrics.

Challenge yourself to make these shortcuts for time-strapped consumers. (Read more on converting URLs to QR here, here, here or consult our free Guide to Creating QR Codes.)

Re-imagine The Landing Page

People are spending 30% more time with popular apps vs sites for good reasons: faster access, native tools (like GPS), less login hassle. But this also pretty much shatters the concept of a Web “landing page.”

Trying to maximize engagement on, say a Facebook campaign? You may want to launch the user’s app. But what platform are they using? Is the app installed? Does it support URL schemes? Does the scheme differ by platform? Is there a fallback URL? (HTML5 apps aren’t the answer yet.)

New link routing logic is in order. So your final resolution of 2012: Consider strategies and deploying app-sensitive link technology to connect more mobile consumers with your campaigns in the optimal fashion.

Make no mistake: Mobile consumers have spoken emphatically. Here’s to you, making 2012 the “year of mobile” for your brand!

IgnitionOne said that among its retail clients, “Mobile search [  ] accounted for 24% of retailers’ total paid search budgets on Black Friday, compared to 14.2% of the total during all of Q4. This represents enormous growth compared to Q4 2010, when mobile search spend accounted for only 5.2% of total retail paid search spend.”

The following chart from IgnitionOne shows the growth of mobile impressions, clicks and search ad spend vs. 2010.

The Marin Software report says the company is seeing increased adoption of mobile and tablet advertising among its clients. More significantly, however, its clients’ campaigns on mobile are “showing significantly better performance than similar campaigns on desktop computers.”

Marin published comparisons for its aggregated search campaigns across PC and mobile. As the chart below indicates, paid search ads on smartphones and tablets outperformed those on the PC in terms of CTRs.

Dim Sum Versus Steak

Let’s start with user needs. Jacon Nielson recently published a study confirming that bite-size chunks of content are best for mobile users. “When in doubt, leave it out” was his sound-bite takeaway. Given our own personal experience with small screens and choppy bandwidth, his conclusion seems pretty intuitive.

But bite-size content clashes with our ability to optimize and promote these pages to search engines. We need more copy, not less, to be able to insert keywords and get traction for a variety of terms.

As we saw last month, Amazon splits product information into two mobile pages.

Amazon’s mcommerce site tries to solve this problem by providing a very short on-page description, and then linking to a second page for more details. This satifies usability, but isn’t ideal at all for search. That second page has all the content, but the first page is likely to have better link authority.

Fortunately, there’s a solution that was developed to solve other sorts of design problems, that can also be helpful for mobile SEO.

Introducing JQM

JQuery Mobile (JQM) is a JavaScript library that was built to close the gap between mobile sites and native apps. Apps typically have the advantage when it comes to interactivity, taking advantage of a library of user interface elements, and offering seamless screen-to-screen transitions.

JQM was built to take advantage of the latest HTML5 and CSS tricks, to help Web designers close the gap with their app developer counterparts.

I published a review of JQM on Search Engine Land back in April, when it was still in alpha and under heavy development. Version 1.0 finally launched last month, and fulfills on the promise of providing app-like capabilities that work on any smartphone – build once, use anywhere.

Leveraging JQM For SEO

One particular aspect of JQM will be useful in solving our content issue. The platform provides a number of options for loading new webpages into a phone, giving designers the ability to import content without keeping a user waiting for a download.

The option of interest to us is called “Internal Linked Pages.” JQM allows multiple pages to be packaged as one big file, where the “links” between pages simply drag the new content into view.

To the user, a new “page” has been loaded – but in reality, that page was already downloaded to the phone, waiting to be viewed. The plus for SEO is that search engine spiders will also download this batch of small pages as a single large file – one that appears to have a decent amount of indexable content.

See the video, starting at 3:05,  for a demonstration of how JQM behaves on a phone:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Combine these capabilities with a strategy for developing mobile commerce content, and the result will be a store that’s not only easy to use, but easy to find on Google as well.

Tis the season to contemplate the future of the local Web marketing for small businesses (SMBs) my friends. For all of you tight-fisted hands at the grindstone, 2012 is loaded with opportunity. But are you going to be a Marley, the walking dead bogged down by the chains of your past, or a reborn Scrooge, dancing in the streets in your pajamas?

“There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you’re not here any more.” – The Ghost of Xmas Present

The Ghost Of Present Local Web Marketing

I know, I forgot the Past. The Past is done. Move on already. Local Web Marketing was and is a simultaneously compelling and confusing opportunity for small business marketers. Some present-day stats to consider – courtesy of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study released earlier this month at the ILM West conference:

SMBs Are Spending An Increasing Amount Of Marketing Budgets Online

87% of SMBs surveyed are spending 24% of their marketing budgets online. In a recession/post-recession/whatever you want to call this thing we’re in. Where do you think that number is heading? Certainly not down (ok it went down this year, but the long term trend is up).

If you are not focused on the Web not only are you missing out on a lot of the action, you are getting totally served by your competition who is already there.

But SMB Websites Suck!

Can you believe only 13% of SMB websites have a local phone number on their home page? I sure can. Think of all the missed opportunities. I often hear SMBs say that they don’t care about clicks to their website, all they care about is calls and people walking in the door. Well, this stat, along with the general crappiness of most SMB sites says that they really don’t care about any of it.

Forget about SEO, social media and other fancy-pants ways to get customers online. Spend a little time on your website, figure out what it is you want the customer to do there (e.g., call you) and make sure the primary thing it does is help the customer do it (e.g. put your frigging phone number on the home page).

So the Present is a bit bleak. But again, let’s move on and focus on the future:

“Ghost of the Future, I fear you more than any spectre I have seen.” – Ebenezer Scrooge

The Future Is Mobile Baby

When it comes to local search, mobile is quickly becoming where it’s at. Cases in point:

• 40% of Google’s mobile search queries (about 1 billion/month) have local intent
• 40% of Yelp’s Traffic is Mobile
• 42% of moms with smartphones use them for shopping

…and on and on and on.

Now I know what you’re thinking. It’s too early. It’s not for my type of business. There’s not enough volume, etc. Well, in a sense that all may be true. The mobile marketing biz is in its infancy, but out of the mouths of babes consider the following:

1. As mentioned above, mobile search volume continues to grow at an astronomical pace, and the new smartphones unleashed over the holidays should keep that trend going.

2. Mobile-optimized websites should have a natural advantage in mobile SEO. Why wouldn’t Google and Bing want to send a mobile phone user to a mobile site instead of a normal website?

3. The competition for mobile advertising at a local level is low. Most of your competition can barely wrap their heads around standard search advertising, let alone mobile advertising. This means that a mobile AdWords campaign are cheaper on a per-click basis.

Check out the following list of common local search keywords and the comparison of their CPC for desktop queries v. mobile queries:

According to AppStack, a SMB mobile marketing start-up (Full disclosure: I am an advisor to AppStack), local mobile advertisers are currently saving about 50% on cost-per-click via Mobile AdWords on a consistent basis. Now I don’t know about you, but when I see I can save 50% off my ad budget and get the same clicks, I pay attention.

Mobile-optimized websites can convert mobile traffic at much higher rate. According to Google, mobile optimized ad campaigns can see a 49% increase in conversions. Combine this with a lower cost-per-lead and you are looking at big potential savings on your cost-per-conversion.

So my advice to you, dear reader, is to explore mobile this year. See if it works for you. At the very least, optimize your site for mobile traffic. Make sure your phone number is displayed prominently and offer a limited set of options for visitors that will look good on a phone browser.

And for those of you who choose to ignore the mobile in 2012 here’s one last quote:

“I’m just mad because I’ve lost my money… my shineys.” – Scrooge McDuck

Search for Groupon, eBay, Amazon, Target, QVC or numerous others. Alongside the brand website listing, local listings, and social profiles, searchers are starting to see links to these brands’ iPhone, iPad, and Android app profile pages, right on the first page of Google.

These app page URLs are presenting powerful new opportunities to “occupy” Page 1 of Google SERPs for desktop and mobile searchers, with big payoffs.

eBay's iPhone App Page Ranks #2 in Google for "eBay"

Optimize App Popularity Through Organic Search

The opportunity is really the product of a collision between Desktop and Mobile worlds: the explosive popularity of apps are reshaping the Web’s link graph around the App Store and Android Market sites.

It comes as no surprise that “Popular Apps” listed in the App Store and Android Market pages are driven by app download volume and rating quality. But these app profile pages and app “directories” (like the App Store’s Lifestyle category page) are also webpages.

As search engines continue to index, display, and rank app pages for search-dominant mobile users, app-mania is simultaneously driving  a geometric expansion of the backlinks and social popularity of these ordinary webpages – giving them extraordinary influence over organic search results.

The net effect, based on our own analysis of top ranking mobile iOS apps, appears to be a powerful feedback loop: App Store popularity gets rewarded by incremental Google visibility.

Higher Google visibility induces more app downloads. More downloading drives higher App Store popularity… and on and on, potentially entrenching popular apps in a rich-get-richer-faster phenomenon:

The App Visibility Cycle (courtesy of pureoxygenmobile.com)

This might seem like bad news for the 99% who have good mobile apps, but aren’t among the “Most Popular” apps listed. But the fact is, this highlights the opportunity – and urgency – for brands to optimize app pages for organic search rankings, to help drive app popularity and other benefits.

Here are five Mobile App SEO tips to get started optimizing your apps for Page 1 Google rankings on brand queries:

Tip #1: Feature your brand prominently in the app name

The app name doubles as the link anchor text within the App Store and Android Market. Getting these sites to link to your app profile page, using your brand name as a link, is critical for tapping into their enormous link equity. (See Groupon, Amazon, and eBay examples below.) Be sure to feature the brand name in the download page URL as well.

Groupon, Amazon, and eBay: Their App Profile Pages Feature the Brand Name as Link Anchor Text

Tip #2: Link to your app profile page(s) from your home page and/or site footer

You have to aim the link equity of your most important pages at your app download pages. Many brands bury these important links.

Consider building a landing page or section dedicated to your apps with screen shots, reviews, features, etc. But it must also have links from the most important pages of your site, and follow the other tips here to make it into Page 1 for brand queries (REI does a nice job of linking to the REI apps).

REI's internal landing page promoting iOS and Android Apps

Tip #3: Include your brand name in the link text that points at app download pages

Too many brands make the mistake of linking to the app profile page without including the brand name, as in  “Download iPhone App.” Even worse, some just link through the “Available on Android/App Store” graphics. (See Walmart example below.) This is a huge missed opportunity! Use your anchor text wisely.

You have to signal that App Store or Android app page is all about your brand (as in “Download the Walmart iPhone app” or “Get the Walmart App for Android.”)

Walmart Links Graphics (No Anchor Text) to App Profile Pages

Tip #4: Provide a QR link to download the app from your desktop site landing page

Use QR codes to give desktop site visitors easy app access. The QR needs to trigger app download on the right device once scanned. Remember to compress the link before your generate the QR. Native Apple and Android app page URLs exceed 50 characters, producing high-density QRs that fail to scan when displayed at small sizes. (Notice the Walmart example above.)

For best results, use a link compression or QR platform that shows you bot QR crawl requests (full disclosure: we provide one). Our prediction is that QR will be a mobile search ranking signal within the next 12 months. Start experimenting now.

Tip #5: Cross-promote your app to mobile users, searchers, and bots

Here’s the magic. You already have a captive mobile audience itching for you to make it easy to discover relevant mobile pages (or your app).

When iPhone, iPad, or Android browsers hit your site (desktop or mobile), provide a link at the top of the page for them to download the appropriate app for their device. (Let’s assume your desktop pages indexed in search engines properly redirect mobile searchers to appropriate mobile pages. If you’re not sure, find out.)

But don’t stop there. For the trifecta, make sure Google’s new Smartphone Googlebot is crawling the app links from your mobile pages as well, using appropriately branded anchor text (not images).

Amazon's Mobile Site Promotes the iOS and Android App, But Lacks Anchor Text

App Store and Android Market app pages are a powerful new ranking opportunity for desktop and mobile searchers. Retailers and media brands with large volumes of site traffic, page content, link networks, or social popularity, can easily leverage these digital assets to influence app profile page relevance, and app popularity, at the same time.

Merry Christmas to all. See you in 2012.

The new Smartphone Googlebot-Mobile user agent is:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7 (compatible; Googlebot-Mobile/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)

As part of today’s announcement, Google is also introducing a feature called “Skip Redirect for Smartphone-Optimized Pages.” Here’s how the blog post describes it:

When we discover a URL in our search results that redirects smartphone users to another URL serving smartphone-optimized content, we change the link target shown in the search results to point directly to the final destination URL. This removes the extra latency the redirect introduces leading to a saving of 0.5-1 seconds on average when visiting landing page for such search results.

With this new smartphone-specific user-agent, Google is advising webmasters to make sure they serve appropriate content for each mobile crawler.

Not too long ago, the article Mobile SEO is a Myth got a lot of people fired up about the foolish notion that mobile SEO is a construct developed by salesmen to sell more SEO services.

I responded in the comments to the author’s points, and have addressed this point in multiple articles over the years, so I’m not going to argue it here again.

While I don’t agree at all that mobile SEO itself is a myth, there are many myths around mobile SEO that practitioners need to be aware of.

Here are a few of the most prevalent…

Myth #1: A Dotmobi TLD Is Necessary For Indexing & Ranking

According to the first result in Google for the query [mobile seo best practices], “the best way to build your mobile web site for SEO is by using the dotMobi domain”.

One of the reasons dotMobi gives for this is the following:

“Building a dotMobi site means that your URL will automatically feature on the ‘zone files’ that we maintain for ICANN (the meta-Internet registry organization), and which are regularly requested by mobile search engines, directories and other sites and services as ‘seed lists’ for the indexing of mobile-centric web sites (in much the same way as they use DMOZ).”

DotMobi should be commended for their dedication to mobile content, and building your brand new mobile site with a DotMobi TLD is no better nor worse than building it at m.domain.com or other popular alternatives, but the fact is Google has more m.domain.com sites indexed than any other.

Futhermore, no DotMobis appeared in the results of an upcoming Resolution Media study that deconstructs the smartphone search results for some top mobile queries in Google. The percentage of .com sites in our upcoming smartphone search results study at 73.97% was actually larger than the Internet as a whole at 55.1%.

There may be good reasons for using a dotMobi TLD, but SEO clearly isn’t one of them.

Myth #2: Metatxt Is Necessary For Mobile SEO

Though I haven’t heard much about it recently, for a while, Bena Roberts and Visibility Mobile were pushing the metatxt standard for better indexing of mobile content. A metatxt file is similar to a robots.txt file and an XML sitemap in that it is a text file at the root location of a server that helps mobile search engines discover mobile content.

The problem with metatxt?

It’s not supported by Google or Bing, which get over 99% of mobile market share, so it won’t get you a lot more visibility in the engines that people use. It’s also just a solution for indexing, so if your content is already indexed well, the metatxt file won’t help you at all. It’s just a txt file, so it doesn’t hurt you to put it up, but it’s certainly not necessary for visibility in mobile search.

In Resolution Media’s upcoming study of the top mobile queries and the ranked sites in Google, zero ranking sites used the metatxt standard, further busting the myth of metatxt for mobile SEO.

Myth #3: Code Validation Is Necessary For Mobile SEO

This one appeared first on this parked domain from 2005, and people keep repeating it because Google keeps ranking the site for mobile SEO queries (#4 currently for [mobile seo].)

It makes sense in theory. Mobile (feature phone) browsers are more primitive, and search engine spiders try to display content that is accessible to the devices that display them. If content isn’t accessible to mobile users, mobile search engine spiders won’t be able to index it.

However, this only applies to the feature phone index, whose importance is receding for mobile SEO with the growing popularity of smartphones.

When it comes to smartphones, validation does not matter, as all ranking results in the sample set failed validation, and  66% of them were so unusable that they scored a zero out of 100% on the W3’s mobileOK test, which is used to determine probable usability of sites on mobile devices, and more than 78% of the listings received a score of “Bad” from Ready.mobi’s mobile validator.

Myth #4: Mobile Sitemaps Are Necessary For Mobile SEO

These can help with indexing feature phone content, and for letting Google know that you want your content to appear in their index of accessible mobile content. But if you’re indexing smartphone content, you don’t need it, says Google’s John Mueller. To back him up on this, none of the ranking sites in the upcoming Resolution Media study on smartphone search results used mobile sitemaps.

Mobile sitemaps probably can’t hurt, and like Web sitemaps, they could help sites get more unique content indexed, but they’re not necessary for mobile SEO unless you’re concerned about indexing feature phone content.

Myth #5: Mobile Formatting (Handheld CSS) Is Enough For Mobile SEO

The mobile SEO is a myth article claims the best strategy is to allow your site to be viewed on all types of devices with CSS. This is a common argument, as I explained before here.

Also, as I explained before, the problem with this argument is that a site that uses a mobile-centric information architecture and keywords to develop content for a mobile user, rather than reformatting desktop content for mobile devices, will always be better-optimized for mobile searchers, because it gives users content that’s based on their specific user experience.

Case in point, if State Farm had not only considered the mobile user experience for their mobile site, but made it competitive for towing and roadside assistance queries that are more heavily trafficked in mobile than desktop, they would have had an opportunity to get even more traffic from search engines.

Responsive design is the easier option, so it’s very popular among designers going mobile because of what is perceived as efficiencies. However, in my experience talking with companies who design this way, many of them end up building a mobile site architecture down the line, making responsive design ultimately less efficient for them, as they have to redo it later on.

Myth #6: Mobile Queries Are Shorter

This one was just repeated in an article in Forbes, but that doesn’t make it true. The theory is, it’s harder to type on mobile devices, and because of this mobile searchers will use fewer words in their query to find what they’re looking for.

However, research from Google in 2009 showed that feature phone searches are only slightly shorter than computer-based searches (2.44 words for feature phones compared to 2.93 words for computers), and that iPhone searchers used the same number of words that computer based searchers used on average (2.93 words).

When some of the same researchers studied spoken queries in early 2011, they found that longer queries have a higher probability of being typed than shorter queries. Never mind your instincts. Mobile queries are no shorter than Web queries.

Myth #7: People Aren’t Searching On Mobile Devices

All due respect to the late innovative marketing genius and eccentric billionaire Steve Jobs, who famously said in 2010, “search hasn’t happened on mobile devices,” but search is happening on mobile devices. Quite a bit of it, actually.

Google reported early this year that 1 in 7 queries come from mobile devices on average, with certain industries (like restaurants) getting as high as 30% of their queries from mobile devices. And Yahoo! has reported that mobile search on average makes up 20% of their total search queries. Jobs was trying to demonstrate that people use apps instead of browser-based search, but Google research on smartphones from April shows that more smartphone owners search (77%) than use apps (68%).

Want to do your part in helping to eradicate these persistent mobile SEO myths?

If you’re calling yourself a mobile SEO expert, as many people do these days, stop repeating them. If you’re not a mobile SEO expert, but want to promote the spread of good, accurate information, share or link to this post and/or check out this list of credible mobile SEO resources until Google gets its act together and stops propagating these myths on what matters for mobile SEO.

In my own shopping experiences, both through mobile sites and mobile apps, I’m finding a consistent theme running through the product pages I see: retailers are unsure how to handle product descriptions.

It’s a fact of life that mobile screens are small, and I’ve recently looked at how that impacts decisions about SEO and mobile content.

“Hide-and-seek” Content

Retailers are trying different approaches with respect to the design of their description areas. Some hide them completely, providing a “more info”-type link to keep the clutter to a minimum. Others provide a small sample of the description, while a few brave souls actually include the entire text – sometimes several screens worth.

Amazon's mcommerce site provides a very short on-page description, linking to a second page for more details.

While these approaches deal with user interface issues, they’re all trying to fix a fundamental problem: mobile sites are using product descriptions created for desktop sites. And quite often, these descriptions are already second-hand, pulled from offline catalogs, manufacturer databases, or print brochures that promote the product. Sometimes they’re long, sometimes short, but they’re often not optimized for search, or edited to fit the needs of mobile users.

Specific Pitfalls With Mobile SEO

Here are some red flags to look for when evaluating product descriptions for an mcommerce site:

• Descriptions from the manufacturer. You’ll find these copied at all your competitor websites. Google dismisses duplicated content from natural search listings, so you’ll be completely reliant on shopping results as your non-paid channel.
• Marketing lingo. Often a symptom of manufacturer-supplied content. Filled with brand attributes but no descriptive keywords.
• Lists of specs. A common pitfall for B2B, or any technology product.

How To Manage Wholesale Revisions

Once you’ve identified problem areas, you can start to plan what resources you’ll need to make changes. There are lots of ways to manage the workflow for a wholesale upgrade of your product copy:

• In-house staff. Either full-timers or interns. This is the direct approach, and produces consistent results, but it can get expensive.
• User-generated edits. Think Wikipedia, where readers suggest edits to make the description better. This is clever and cheap, but you need a very large audience to get enough activity. Plus, moderation is necessary to keep the quality up.
• Crowdsourcing. My personal favorite. Revising large numbers of products is an ideal project for a team of remote workers, who can log-in on their own time and tackle them a few at a time. Crowdsourcing tools are difficult to master, but once you nail down a process, you can plow through thousands of SKUs in a few weeks, with good quality results and no need for extra staff.

Pick Your Battles

Whatever method you choose, costs are an important consideration. Creating content – even in bite-size chunks – can get expensive. And that cost has to be justified by ROI.

So how do we prioritize a project where there might be thousands of SKUs to look at?

Clockwise from top left: Buy.com is very text-heavy, while Best Buy only has specs. Walmart.com has a good balance of copy and specs.

Let’s start with the highest priority fixes, and work our way down:

• Top sellers. You could sort this by sheer volume of sales, or their contribution to profits – whatever defines business success for your store.
• Word count. The longest descriptions probably good candidates for a “long-story-short” version.
• Lack of category name in the text. This is a good indication that the description lacks keywords. Most mcommerce sites are run from a database, so a script that looks for category names in the text can be quick way to assess this.
• Ratio of numbers to letters. For technical products (especially B2B) a lot of numbers in the description (say, 20%) mean you’re probably looking at a spec sheet.

So now you’ve identified the your mobile commerce site’s issues, chosen a method for manage the workflow, and singled-out the products that need revising. Now you can circle back to the “hide-and-seek” design issue, and adapt your page designs to fit the content.

I’ll get into that in the next column, but if you’d like a sneak preview of the factors we’ll be talking about, have a look at my past article on using JQuery Mobile for SEO.