Mobile SEO and search marketing tactics for mobile devices. #MobileSEO

seo for mobile

Mobile SEO Strategy

Do you need a dedicated mobile SEO strategy?

The most common answer will be yes, but is that the best answer? A deeper dive into online user behaviors may suggest otherwise. The line between desktop and mobile has become blurred, as more and more online visitors rarely see a clear distinction between mobile and desktop and their internet devices. To most internet users, mobile is simply an extension of online connectivity.

Most of your audience will not stop to think about searching from different devices, to them it’s about simple quick access to the Internet.  How that “always on” access happens includes:

  • Device agnostic as long as the information is the same
  • Personalized across secured platforms
  • Quick, responsive and relevant

Desktops, notebooks, tablets and phone are trending towards a seamless hand-off from one device to another or one platform to another.  Laptops now incorporate touch screens, apps and ins ton on features similar to mobile and tablets, while mobile products improve internal performance and keyboard accessibility.

mobile_300x201There is no “line” on the Internet
If your audience doesn’t stop to think about mobile as a separate thing and if most of your brand proposition and information is “out there” online and access is increasingly blurred across devices, then the question becomes do you really need a mobile only strategy? What if you decide that a single focused mobile SEO strategy is best?

Consider that, a single strategy, mobile focused.  Let’s make every digital strategy a mobile strategy. Consider the outcomes of this simple approach, what would this look like for your business?  This omnipresent approach needs to mirror your audience behavior across multiple platforms and devices to maximize value delivery to them.

Omni-channel marketing includes mobile

The distinction of “mobile only” is lost as far as the average person is concerned. Which means your online strategy will have to work double and triple duty to play nicely with this ubiquity. Your mobile focused strategy needs to support how people fundamentally engage with their devices:

  • for communicating with other people or peoples
  • for consuming their favorite media (text, images, video)
  • for seeking answers

As a business owner or professional service provider, you can see the branding and marketing opportunities by providing user value in any of the use cases listed above.  To further provide an awesome experience for your audience consider these things as well:

  • The platform – what can your website / blog do in the new web environment?
  • The content – the strategy, the schedule, the development, and the tactical deployment
  • The audience – where are they and how can you best reach them? What do you want them to do next?

Most importantly for your mobile focused strategy, how will you define success? What are the quantifiable KPIs that you will use to measure and monitor performance? How will these key performance indicators help you refine your mobile focused strategy going forward?

Simple, right? Maybe, but then again maybe not. Adopting a single mobile focused strategy sounds easy enough at first pass, but execution of this strategy is something different altogether. You will succeed as long as every step of your mobile marketing strategy includes a focus on mobile and a focus on how your audience engages with your brand message on their mobile devices.

Related: 6 Ways To Ignite Mobile SEO, Know Mobile SEO, Know Mobile User Behavior, 10 Mobile SEO Tactics

Local Citations Improve Search Results

How Citations Influence Search Results

When it comes to ranking your business website, it is important to be mentioned on other authority sites. Most business owners spend a huge chunk of their time looking for hyperlinks from other websites. What they don’t realize is that they can get benefits from simply being mentioned on authority sites; this is true even if the site doesn’t use a hyperlink to directly link back to their website.

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local seo

Local SEO

It is important to get local citations for your business. Sites like the Yellowpages can help boost your search engine rankings; they do this without ever linking back to your site. Local business associations and your local Chamber of Commerce websites are also places where you can get a local citation.

When the search engines notice your business name mentioned on an authority site, they know that you aren’t some fly by night company. The search engines take this information and use it to give your business more authority; this authority means better search engine rankings.

Local citations are used by major search engines as an additional ranking factor; if your website has many citations, then it is likely to rank higher than a website without them. Businesses often spend thousands of dollars on SEO only to be outranked by sites that have very few backlinks. They don’t realize that their competition is ranking because of citations on authority sites.

Why Local Citations Are Important

Citations help the search engines verify your business address and contact information; when the search engines are sure that your information is current and correct, they are likely to display your website over others. Citations help search engines categorize your business; search engines work hard to give people information that is relative to their search queries. If the search engines can’t decipher what type of business you run, then they aren’t very likely to show your business in their local search results.

Using local citations is very important in less-competitive niches; they help to give you an advantage over your competition. Local sites tend to be put together sloppily; they often don’t use strategies that larger companies use. Without much information about these sites, the search engines use whatever they can find to help their algorithm rank sites correctly.

A local citation allows search engines to validate your business; your business is more likely to show up in local search results when the search engines know you are part of the community. It is hard for businesses to fake being listed in the Yellowpages or in their Chamber of Commerce. Search engines know this; they use this to give your business a boost in the rankings.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]