Search engine optimization “how to” series: Mobile

Local search and mobile use are strongly related. Many people tend to search while they’re out and about and need immediate access to what’s around them. In fact according to this article, recent research by Google suggests that 50 percent of mobile users are most likely to visit after conducting a local search, while 34 percent of consumers on tablets or computers will go to a store.

Search Engine Optimization “How to” Series: Mobile

Not convinced yet? Here’s one more stat (eMarketer) that might cause some action, Local mobile searches (85.9 billion) are projected to exceed desktop searches (84 billion) for the fist time in 2015.

That’s right, mobile will be perhaps more important the desktop in 2015 for local search.

And finally, if you’re still not budging, here’s one final reason to go mobile-friendly.

Google rewards websites that work on mobile. Google considers a website that is mobile optimized and responsive as a more user friendly website. On the flip side, Google can actually penalize websites which aren’t optimized mobile, as it considers them to be less user friendly.

So, what does “mobile” mean? Mobile means everything in today’s online marketing and SEO arena. It needs to have the attention of anyone who aims to gain a better search engine ranking.

If that’s you, make sure your website is mobile friendly and can be viewed on any device a user might be viewing your website with. Yes, this applies to desktop’s and laptops. But, the whole point of mobile optimization is to have a website that can evolve and morph to be readable and look native at any screen width/height, specifically on tablets and smart phones.

If you want to get an idea of what your current website looks like on a smart phone, this is a great mobile phone emulator website. It can display the way different phones render websites, in landscape and vertical layouts. Use the URL field to the right to enter your website URL.