More than 60% of consumers searched for brands from mobile devices before purchasing, and another 49% of mobile searchers made a mobile purchase in the past six months. Year-over-year mobile paid-search impressions have grown 238% in 2010, compared to just 13% from computers. Users are turning more and more to mobile search to quickly compare products, check reviews and to check contact details and opening hours.

Overwhelmingly, satisfaction with and adoption of mobile search rang true throughout the study:

• 75 percent said mobile search makes their lives easier
• 63 percent said access to mobile search has changed the way they gather information
• 32 percent said they use mobile search more than search engines on their computers

 
Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt said that 78% of smartphone owners now use their phones while they shop. “This is the future and everyone will adapt,” Schmidt said. Mobile growth is occurring at a quicker rate than anyone expected. “We look at the charts internally and it’s happening faster than all of our predictions,” Schmidt noted.

As mobile increasingly becomes the primary local search gateway, it is crucial for companies to incorporate optimum SEO practices into their mobile strategy to ensure their mobile sites are easily detected by search engines and are found and can be used by mobile consumers.

Remember don’t just shrink your existing website, create a great experience for mobile users focused around just the one or two things they really need while mobile.

Mobile SEO optimization

In general SEO for mobile sites/devices is no different compared to desktop browser-based websites.  To rank well in the search results websites need to:

• Have the main keyword(s) at beginning of title
• Use the keyword/phrase in H1 / H2 tags,
• Keep navigation clean and simple
• Focus on good – well written content
• Have a good link structure (internal links and incoming links)

 
Remember that mobile search is much more focused on local/regional results, so be sure to include these terms in your keyword combinations where appropriate.

Mobile Website Performance

Google has recently been emphasizing website performance as a major factor in ranking. According to a recent Tealeaf market-study, for mobile performance is doubly important as:

• 85% of mobile users expect the mobile experience to be better than or equal to online using a laptop or desktop computer.
• 63% of all online adults said they would be less likely to buy from the same company via other purchase channels if they experienced a problem conducting a mobile transaction.

 
Currently the average mobile e-commerce website page takes almost 10 seconds to load the homepage and the trend is for even slower websites!  Surprise and please your customers – produce a FAST website.

Reduce image size (using a good graphic editor) as small as possible – and remove all images that don’t contribute to the message/story. Also remove any JavaScript not required for the mobile site. Using a mobile style sheet this can easily be implemented without requiring different pages for mobile and main website.

Make sure you DON’T use Flash, Ajax or frames and keep navigation clean and simple.

One of the best ways to eliminate frustration and improve the potential for conversion from your mobile site is to prevent left-to-right scrolling. Make sure you never use the “PRE” tag (which stops browser reformatting the text) in HTML code and use relative positioning and percents in the code, rather than absolute positioning and fixed font sizing.

There are also plugins for all major CMS systems to let you have automatically have different pages / themes for mobile devices, or you can manually customize HTML pages using the “HandheldFriendly” meta-tag.  If you are using WordPress, check out the free WPtouch mobile plugin which will in most cases automatically optimize your content for mobile devices.

Mobile Website Marketing

Add benefit for mobile users – coupons and daily specials are great reasons for mobile users to visit or return to your site and for users to create links to your mobile website.
Don’t forget to add QR codes to your printed marketing materials (business card, flyers, posters) so that mobile users can quickly access your website.

Take advantage of Social Networking tools such as Foursquare and Gowalla. Offer benefits for check-ins in your shop/restaurant or organize an event (Swarm for example) to attract lots of people. This is a great way to attract new customers and build recognition.

Owning your own mobile domain “.mobi” is a great tip and one that is overlooked by a huge number of companies.  This has more value than ‘yourdomain.com/mobile’ or ‘m.yourdomain.com’ and should make it easier for the search engines to understand that it is not duplicate content, or know when to rank the different versions of the page.

Finishing up

When you are finished, build an XML sitemap (see here for new mobile sitemap format) for your mobile site and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools under sitemap section.

Another level of complexity for mobile design is the new entry of  tablet devices, which are also touch screen devices, and moderately mobile, but much bigger than phones. In most cases, I recommend simply serving your traditional website to devices like these. One caveat though – check the load times of your traditional website, as tablet users will sometimes be accessing your website over a slower wireless network at 3G speeds.

When you are finished you can test if your Web site is really mobile-friendly using the W3C mobile website validator and with as many real devices as you and your friends can get your hands on!

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#1: Keyword near the beginning of the Title tag.

It can be enough to simply place the keyword in the title tag. It is even better to have it at the beginning of title. Title tag is almost certainly the most important SEO criterion for all search engines. Make sure you have a unique title for each page, optimized for 2 or 3 keywords on the page.

Preferred format: “Keyword1 – Keyword2 | Brand or Company | location”

#2: Keyword used as Anchor text from External Links.

Inbound links from other domains that use your keyword(s) as the anchor text are essential for SEO. External links with text “www.yourdomain.com” are much less beneficial.

#3: Authority of the Domain.

Google recognizes domains that have built a strong online presence and weighs their articles higher by default than others. Age of domain also aids authority.

#4: Genuinely high-quality, unique Content.

This SEO factor is vital. The key to success for your website / blog is to create amazing content that people enjoy and will link back to.

#5: Page loading Speed.

Make your website as fast as possible. Then make it even faster! Use a free browser plugin such as YSlow or the online tool http://www.webpagetest.org to see where the problems are and optimize your pages. CMS systems such as WordPress and Joomla include free plugins to automate this.

#6: The number and quality of External links to a page.

Every link to a page is like a vote. The more links that your site gets, the more popular Google knows that your site is. Especially links from highly rated or keyword topical websites. See Tip #4.
PS: Links from low-quality, spammy websites are more likely to hurt your ranking, so not all links are good.

#7: Keyword in H1 Tag.

Google knows that the most important information on the page is in the heading tag. Take the time to make sure yours count.
You do have a H1 tag on every page don’t you?!

#8: Keyword anywhere in the Domain Name.

Sites often rank well for the keywords that are contained in their domain name. This is more important for Bing and Yahoo, Google doesn’t seem to value this so highly anymore.

#9: Links from Social Media sources.

Search engines pay attention when they see you creating content that your followers enjoy so much that they share it. You do have Twitter and Facebook accounts don’t you? Youtube, Flickr and LinkIn accounts are also worth to create – but only if you have the content to keep each account active.
Make sure you website includes Social Boomarking links people can share your content.

#10: The existence of a META Description for your page.

Providing a META description is crucial, as it is usually the text shown in the search results below your page title. A great description will encourage users to click through to your site. Be honest though – users clicking the back button too quickly to return to search results (bounce) is now a key factor used by Google in downgrading webpages for a particular search term. Each page needs a unique description that matches its’ content!

#11: Diversity of External Link sources.

It’s great to have a dozen links from another site. It’s even better to have one link each from a dozen quality sites using your keyword(s) as the anchor text.

#12: Keyword as Anchor text to Outbound Links.

Search engines like to see you linking to other relevant sites. Your keyword as the anchor text is a great way to do it.

#13: Keyword as Anchor text to Outbound Links.

Search engines like to see you linking to other relevant sites. Your keyword as the anchor text is a great way to do it.

#14: Length of the remaining Domain Registration.

Spammers often register domains for very short periods of time. If the domain doesn’t expire for 4 or 5 years, this will add to authority.
PS: Google can only detect this for major TLDs (.com, .net) at present.

#15: Keyword in the Page URL.

Google pays attention to sites with keywords in their permalinks. Make sure yours contains terms that describe the content of each page / article.
Make sure you have enabled “Search Engine Friendly URLs” in your CMS system.

#16: Keyword in smaller Headlines like H2 – H6, Bold and Italics.

Although these are less important than the H1 header tag, they are still worth to fill correctly.

#17: Keyword as the ALT Text for images and Title for Links.

Using a key phrase as the alt text of an image is a tried and true way of earning better listings. Search engines cannot “read” pictures – they instead use the “alt” attribute to discover the meaning. The “title” attribute of links can also be used to add an extra description to each link that has a minor affect on ranking for the target page for the used keywords.

#18: Create an XML Sitemap.

By providing an XML sitemap and submitting it to Google’s webmaster tools, you ensure that Google will be able to find all of the important pages of your website with the least amount of hassle. This is easy to produce with a plugin for WordPress or Joomla or via http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

PS: Make sure you also submit it to Bing Webmaster toolbox, as Bing is not good at finding ALL your pages.

#19: Claim your location Google Places

Google moved the Google Places listings from the usually ignored upper right corner into the main search results where it is now very visible. Google Maps also uses the data from Places – and most searches on mobile phones automatically use this data! This means that more and more people are now using Google Place Search, so claiming a Google Places listing ensures that more people will find your website. Make sure your Places profile is filled out correctly and fully. It is also imperative to get some feedback posted as soon as possible. This will help a lot in local search optimization.

#20: Include Location in your Keywords

Make sure to include your location (town, region and state) in your keywords if your product / service cannot be exported. There may not be the same amount of daily traffic for these specialized location keywords, but they are certain to be in your target market, and you have much less competition.

Lastly – Don’t forget BING!

Bing is the only search engine gaining market share at present and it now also handles all Yahoo search results (30% market-share in USA already). Make sure you register your site with Bing Webmaster Tools and Bing Business Portal (USA only at this point).