The latest data in from Nielsen, a leading market researcher, shows that 56% of mobile cell phone purchasers opted for an Android Smartphone in Q2 2011. At the same time, 71% of those who have an Android mobile device used Google Mobile Search in the last 30 days.
In other words, with Android dominating the mobile market, the entrée for Google’s mobile search is certain. Mobile search domination appears to rest with Google, and for SEO practitioners and local businesses alike, this has real implications. Lawmakers in Washington D.C. have also picked up on this looming reality: former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, was grilled at Senate Hearings held in September. One stark statistic was thrown out – Google’s Android holds 97% of the OS market for mobile – in other words, mobile is already in Google’s hands while you are using the cell phone in yours.
Mobile search is used in a fundamentally different way than a desktop or static search. Mobile search is used “in the now and here”, as in, “I am away from home, I want a coffee, where is a good place for a cappuccino?” Mobile search is able to answer these localized and personal questions using geo-location (it already knows where you are) and pulls in data directly applicable to your immediate vicinity.
Compare this to a static search; if I am at my US-based office looking for a supplier of widgets, I may be equally interested in learning how a manufacturer in Shenzhen, China is able to price/deliver the widgets. Locality does not matter so much, unless I want it to, and I am more open-minded about the information being presented to me in that static setting.
This underscores the opportunity for Local SEO when it comes to going Mobile. You are much more likely to get convertible traffic from mobile users, because they are looking for your product or service now.
There is another major characteristic of mobile users too – they tend to search by category rather than brand name. When you want a coffee, you simply want a good coffee no matter who is serving it up.
The opportunity for local businesses is to optimize for Google mobile search. This means ranking for keyword terms which users are searching on, coupled with your locality. In addition, human input is becoming more important for the algorithms, so keep seeking testimonials from your customers, and once again, don’t forget to include social media signal generators by adding the Facebook “Like” and Google +1 buttons to your content. There is no question… optimizing for Mobile Search will continue to be increasingly important for every business.
