10 tips to drive more traffic to your mobile site

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10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

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A short guide get more visitors to your mobile site, generate more leads and to be successful in 2014 with your local business!

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Page 1: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your

Mobile Site

Page 2: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Contents Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3

Make it mobile --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4

Make the most of mobile --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5

Mobile is different ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6

Good housekeeping --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7

Content is king --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8

Mobile friendly or mobile optimized? ---------------------------------------------------------- 9

Make it local ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10

Make it social ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11

Make it fast -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12

Don’t hide content in apps ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13

Get discovered ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14

Page 3: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

The mobile web has become a very different place. The average handset is much more

capable, the operator’s data networks are more reliable, data plans are more affordable and

there are so many more engaging mobile-friendly, Websites. All of this has led to a boom

in mobile Web traffic and with it a boom in mobile search. Now, more than ever, it is

essential that mobile visitors find your site whether they are searching on Google, Bing,

Yahoo or Baidu.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of those areas that are overcomplicated with

technical jargon and complex theories, but the rules are really quite simple. SEO is not

about machines, it’s about people. Search engines want to deliver the site that is the most

relevant and best-equipped to answer the mobile searcher’s query. Search engine spiders –

the robots that patrol the Web indexing sites and content – are designed to emulate human

visitors. The secret to good SEO, in many cases, is to making sure your site serves the

mobile user/searcher better.

Page 4: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Make it mobile

Mobile optimization and SEO go hand-in-hand.

Websites should be optimized for the user’s mobile device.

There are two aspects to this: dealing with the limitations

of the device and taking advantage of unique features of

the device. Let’s start with the limitations. These devices

come in numerous shapes and sizes, but generally have a

much smaller screen than a PC and less computing power,

typing on them is more difficult and generally they

connect via mobile operator networks, which generally

aren’t as fast and efficient as a wired Internet connection.

This means sites designed for PC typically do not perform

well on mobile devices, unless they have been made

mobile friendly. So: as search engines want to deliver the

best results, given the choice, they will prioritize a mobile

or mobile-optimized site ahead of one that might work

badly on a mobile device.

In June 2013, Google issued some new Guidelines for

mobile-optimized sites, these included some

recommendations to avoid common errors, including:

using videos that don’t play on mobile devices; faulty redirects (redirecting mobile visitors

to the wrong page on your mobile site); pages that deliver 404 (page unavailable) errors to

mobile visitors; linking to a PC site when the same content is available on a mobile site

and greeting visitors with a download-our-app interstitial ads. Despite Google’s warnings

these irritating ads are still common, visit British National Rail Enquiries, on a mobile

device, for example.

According to Google’s John Mueller, Google search now takes these issues into account

while prioritizing results. And who can blame it? Fixing these errors will make your site

more user-friendly for mobile visitors and easier for Google’s spiders to crawl your site.

Mobile optimization and search optimization go hand-in-hand.

So how big a problem is this? According to research by Pure Oxygen Labs (June, 2013),

two-thirds of the Fortune 100 risk being downgraded in mobile search, for failing to follow

Google’s guidelines on mobile optimization of Web content.

Page 5: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Make the most of mobile

Use the unique capabilities of mobile devices to serve your visitors better.

Next, let’s look how playing to the advantages of mobile devices will improve the mobile

experience and thus improve SEO.

The terms mobile-friendly site and mobile-optimized site are often used indiscriminately,

but they are different. Mobile-friendly means the site will work well on a mobile device,

where the mobile-optimized site is designed to take advantage of the functions of mobile

devices such as SMS, voice, camera, global positioning system (GPS) and so on. These are

functions that don’t exist on a PC and/or don’t make sense on a PC site. For this reason the

mobile-optimized site is usually a different Website from the PC site, sometimes served on

the same URL, some times on a dedicated URL such as site.mobi or m.site.com.

Features of mobile-optimized sites, as used by US retailers:

a) Click-to-call – this is the most commonly used

mobile-only feature. When the visitor clicks/touches

the phone number on the mobile site’s contact page,

phone automatically dials (subject to a confirmation)

the number on the visitor’s handset. It’s a simple,

but very effective use of mobile’s unique

application: the voice call.

b) Mobile coupons – retailers such as Target are

supplementing printed coupons with mobile

coupons that are delivered by SMS (so only works

on mobile devices), which can be redeemed in-store,

without the need to print anything off. This builds

loyalty, drives sales, attracts search traffic for

“mobile coupons” and encourages links, like Target

m-coupons.

c) Store locator – using the device’s GPS for a store

locator is another good example of a feature that is

very useful on mobile, but nonsensical on a PC.

Coupled with mobile mapping this feature can guide

the visitor straight into your store. There’s no

wonder that it’s becoming increasingly common on

retailers’ mobile sites, including Walmart, Target

and Walgreens. If your site is still asking mobile

search visitors to enter their zip code/post code, then

it’s time to move into the 21st century with location-

based services (LBS). This is a user-friendly way to

answer the common query “where is the nearest…?”

Page 6: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

d) Barcode scanner – Sears is leading mobile Web innovation with the introduction of a

mobile scanning function to its mobile site. This enables a user to scan a product’s barcode

when at home or in a competitor’s store (this type of search is called “show-rooming”), to

find out if it is available, how much it costs, then purchase it…from Sears. The same

function, i.e. product scanning, would have no place on Sears’ PC site.

Unfortunately a lot of mobile innovation is locked away within native/download

applications. See the examples in Google’s playbook Mobile Playbook. It is frustrating for

SEO experts that more brands don’t bring similar mobile innovations to mobile sites,

which would both enhance the customer experience and help to drive inbound traffic to the

site from both search and links from other Websites.

Mobile is different

Mobile and PC users search for different things.

In addition to being a different physical device to the PC,

the mobile context – i.e. where you are, what you are

doing and what you want – can also be different. Both

factors influence what mobile users search for. The

obvious examples focus on the device itself, so mobile

users might search for “mobile coupons” (PC uses tend to

search for “printable coupons”), “ringtones”, “android

apps” or “mobile games”.

This gives mobile-optimized sites a head start over

mobile-friendly sites when it comes to search

optimization. The difference is clear when you compare

the dedicated mobile sites of

Gameloft wapshop.gameloft.com and EA,wap.ea.com,

which emphasize their mobile games content, while

Disney’s games.disney.com which serves the same

content to both the PC and mobile audience, does not.

Great examples of mobile context-related search are

motoring incidents such as breakdown, accidents or

broken windshield. Because these situations are most likely to occur while out on the road,

the first port of call is the mobile Web. This means there is a higher incidence of mobile

Page 7: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

searching for terms like “towing” and “roadside assistance”, than for terms like “auto

insurance” where PC searches dominate.

One company that gets this is the US insurance company State Farm. Accident Help is a

prominent feature found on the mobile site m.statefarm.com, but not present on PC

site statefarm.com. Accident Help states in basic terms what you should do in the case of

an accident with links to make a claim and find a repair facility (which allows you to

search by zip code and by language spoken). First and foremost this clever feature is for

the benefit of the user, but should also be popular with the spiders.

Good housekeeping

Apply the basic rules of Web design and SEO should follow.

When you understand the mobile context of the user, and what they are likely to be looking

for you are in a better position to define the purpose of the mobile site and the content

therein. Make sure that site sections, navigation and

pages are all given titles and URLs that accurately

describe the site and what is on the page, using

common terminology e.g. “contacts”. Take into

account what will appeal to the mobile searcher and

what language they are likely to use when they

search.

Start each page with a descriptive introductory

sentence, use logical heading and sub-headings

(humans and search-engine spiders, alike, scan

pages to find out what’s there). Make Web links

obvious and label them accurately so they describe

the page to which you are linking – avoid 'read

more' or 'click here'.

SEO experts refer to the words commonly used in

searches (relevant to your site), as keywords or

search phrases – allowing these to influence these

naming conventions and your copy-writing is

known as on-page optimization. If you are a “Hotel

in Times Square” or if you make “mobile games”

make this the focus of your Webpage(s). The key

rule is to design the site and write the copy for the

Page 8: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

user, while making sure you have ticked the boxes for the search engines, never the other

way round.

Keywords helps humans and search-engine spiders understand what is contained on a

Webpage. Use them where they would naturally occur, but don’t force keywords in or

needlessly repeat them for SEO purposes – search engines take a dim view of such

manipulation. For example The Manhattan Hotel (N.B. this URL delivers an entirely

different site and experience on a mobile device to PC) emphasizes its location in its brief

copy (and URL), with four logical links to sections: reservations, accommodations,

directions (with mapping), and contact us (with click-to-call/email). The New York guide

is discussed below.

All sites should also take note of accessibility. Visually-impaired people use screen readers

to “read” Websites, these require images to be described in alt-text and screen-readers also

struggle to read non-html content such as Flash. Luckily, search engine spiders have

similar preferences to screen readers. So accessibility improves search optimization.

Content is king

The three stages of compelling content.

Content is the heart of all mobile sites – the more

useful, compelling and regularly updated the content,

the more frequently people and spiders will visit, and

the more readily people will recommend the site, by

linking from other sites and social media. There are

three levels to this:

I) Content that promotes and sells your company and its

goods and services.

II) Content and services that ad value to the sale,

including in-depth product information, advice and

reviews, and regularly updated offers that drives opt-ins

and increases loyalty.

III) Helpful articles and information, entertainment,

giveaways and competitions that are related to the

business/customer relationship, but may not necessarily

drive sales.

Page 9: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

This third stage is called content marketing. Done well, these services should be useful to

the visitor/customer, as well as being a big benefit with SEO.

This scenario fits well with health and beauty retailers, which can offer help and advice on

matters of health. A great example is Walgreens m.walgreens.com mobile site that links to

an extensive library of mobile-friendly health resources at health.walgreens.com and

walgreens-mobile.adam.com, though perhaps from an SEO perspective it would be more

helpful to have them on the same domain.

Another good example of content marketing is for hotels to supplement the essentials with

useful information on the locality. The Manhattan Hotel makes a good effort with its brief

guide to New York activities, shops, restaurants, shows – with addresses and click-to-call

numbers.

Mobile friendly or mobile optimized?

Use the type of mobile site that suits your customers and your requirements.

There is some debate about which type of mobile configuration gives the best SEO. As we

have pointed out throughout this guide, put the mobile user at the centre of your mobile

strategy and good SEO will follow. There are three main types of mobile site. All are

supported by Google. These are often confused and in practice mobile sites will blend the

approaches.

a) Responsive Web design (RWD) uses the same content for PC and mobile devices. All

content is sent then reconfigured to suit the device using cascading style sheets (CSS).

b) With a dedicated mobile site, the site detects the visitor device (using a tool such as

dotMobi’s DeviceAtlas) and redirects them to a mobile-optimized site on a separate URL

(e.g. from site.com to site.mobi or m.site.com).

c) Adaptive Web design (AWD) or dynamic serving also detects the visitor device and

serves a mobile optimized site, but this is done on the same URL (e.g. site.com).

While Google supports all three approaches and has no intention of making business

decisions for you, it has recommended RWD for smartphone sites. This led advocates to

claim that Google prioritizes RWD sites over dedicated mobile sites, but this does not

appear to be the case.

There is much in favor of RWD, but it has its drawbacks. Firstly, RWD does not work for

feature phones – people forget that almost half of mobile phones in use even in western

nations such as the US and UK are feature phones – for these Google prescribes dedicated

Page 10: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

mobile sites either on different or the same URL. Secondly, RWD sends the same content

for PCs and mobile devices, which is fine as long as mobile and PC visitors want the same

thing, but it makes it difficult for sites to capitalize on all the things that make mobile

different e.g. GPS, camera, SMS and voice, or to theme the site to maximize appeal to

mobile searchers, when they are searching for mobile-specific things.

All the mobile-optimized sites highlighted in this guide

serve mobile visitors with a different site to PC visitors,

either on a separate URL such as m.statefarm.com or on

the same URL such as manhattanhoteltimessquare.com.

Responsive design v dedicated mobile site – what’s more

popular? Research by Pure Oxygen Labs (June, 2013)

into Fortune 100 Websites found that 45 percent had a

dedicated mobile site, 11 percent had a responsive design

site, while 44 percent gave off no mobile signal at all.

Make it local

Locality and timeliness is more important to mobile searchers than PC searcher.

Survey results and keyword research (see below) suggest that mobile searchers are more

interested in the right here and right now than PC searchers. We found that 94 percent of

smartphone users had conducted a search for local information and 84 percent had taken

action as a result. Another survey Mobile Search Moments (Nielsen and Google, March

2013) found that 63 percent of people who take action following a mobile search do so

within an hour, 84 percent do so within five hours.

This is having a massive effect: local mobile search volumes are growing rapidly and are

forecast by BIA/Kelsey (April, 2012) to overtake desktop local search in the US in 2015.

In many ways this is self-fulfilling prophecy. As anyone who has searched on Google and

other search engines with a mobile device will have noticed, your location (if you share it)

has a major influence on results (whether or not you wish it).

It is essential that companies capitalize on this trend. Anticipate that mobile users will

search on “vegetarian restaurant in [your locality]”. If that’s your business, make sure your

mobile site emphasizes what you do and where you are. Anticipate want they want: menu,

offers, reservations, call, location and map.

Page 11: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Consider, the coffee chain, Starbucks, for example. People search for the nearest Starbucks

on their PC, but many more people search from a mobile device. Analysis of Google

Keywords shows that 72 percent of people who are searching for a Starbucks using terms

such as “navigate to Starbucks”, “24 hour Starbucks” or “drive thru Starbucks” do so on a

mobile device. Companies that see similar patterns with mobile queries should ensure that

visitors get what they are searching for – perhaps creating dedicated landing pages for

these terms.

Research conducted by Bryson Meunier at Resolution Media (Q1, 2013) shows that

searches for ATM location (99 percent), restaurants (88 percent), bars (97 percent), android

apps (69 percent) and ringtones (73 percent) mostly commonly come from mobile devices.

The research was conducted using Google’s Keyword Tool, which has since been replaced

by Keyword Planner. This is a disappointment for mobile SEOs because Keyword Tool,

unlike its predecessor, does not distinguish between searches from mobile and PC

searches. Google is expected to fix this.

Make it social

Make it easy for people to recommend you.

Mobile searchers are social, and it’s important to give them options to share your content,

offer or recommend your services using their favorite social platforms, by providing links

with those instantly recognizable icons. Social networks have become an important

influence on all search engine discoverability, but majorly so when it comes to mobile, as

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so many users access social networks from mobile devices. For example, 874 million or 74

percent of Facebook’s monthly users worldwide are mobile, according to Facebook’s Q3

earnings.

Adding the ability to share your content on social networks will make your content more

visible in general, but especially to those users who access social networks primarily on

mobile devices. Facebook’s share buttons work on dedicated mobile or responsive sites.

Sharing/social networks provide easy-to-use plugins for mobile sites, see AddThis for

example.

N.B. Whenever you add a new piece of code to your site, even something seemingly

innocuous as a plug-in check the page speed, to make sure the new code doesn’t slow

down the speed at which the page loads.

Make it fast

Your mobile site should load on a smartphone in 1 second.

In August 2013 Google announced new speed guidelines for smartphone sites. Google

recommends that the key content of the page, called “above the fold” (because it is visible

without needing to scroll down) should be delivered and be displayed on a user’s handset

in one second or less. Unfortunately the average mobile page takes more than seven

seconds to load.

Regardless of whether your site is responsive or uses dedicated HTML, take steps to make

it as fast as possible. Google warned that slow-loading pages may be penalized in search

ranking and that speed would be increasingly scrutinized in the future.

But why are we focused on what Google thinks? Consider your human visitor: how long

do you expect them to wait for your page to load before returning to the search page and

trying the next Website?

Page 13: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Don’t hide content from search engines with apps

Web search engines can’t search in-app content

If you create a mobile experience that is meant to be accessed through a native/download

application, you are severely limiting the visibility of your content. Not only will this shut

out all other platforms (i.e. an iOS app won’t work on Android, Blackberry, Kindle Fire or

feature phones), but it also excludes the only platform that search engines really serve: the

Web.

Yes, it is possible to make your app more discoverable within app stores using “app store

optimization” and mobile advertising, and Web search engines may find the Webpage that

features your app. But search engines, such as Google cannot search and index in-app

content, in the same way as they will a mobile site, so however excellent your article or

feature; or compelling your offer, it isn’t going to display in mobile search results.

The same goes for human links. Links are the life-blood of the Internet – this is how

humans, and search-engine spiders, find your latest content, its how things are

recommended in the digital world. The problem with native apps is that they don’t lend

themselves to linking in the same way as Websites. So someone might read your content, if

they have your app on their handset, but they can’t recommend that piece of content with a

link on their site, via social media, email or SMS. They can only link to a Webpage where

the app is available for download.

As Google’s Jason Spero says in the Mobile Playbook: “If you have to prioritize between

an app and a mobile site, your first priority should be creating a mobile-optimized

Website.”

There’s a time and place for apps, but if you want your content to be discovered by a wider

audience, it needs to be on your mobile site.

Page 14: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Get discovered

It’s not just about search engines, nor is it just about the Web.

There are plenty other ways of letting the world know about your mobile site, or the new

content, offers or features it contains – other than search engines. Use your existing mobile

channel, such as SMS and email. Add your mobile site URL, or use a quick response (QR)

code, to marketing materials, books or brochures and out-of-home or print advertisements.

This is likely to prove more effective where there is a contextual relevance. Airlines are

particularly good at this, printing their mobile site address directly on napkins, in-flight

magazines and banners in the airport.

Back in the digital world there are mobile directories such as YesWap, galleries that

highlight mobile excellence, such as Mobile Awesomeness, Media Queries for RWD

sites, JQuery Mobile Gallery for JQuery Mobile sites and there are lots of different Mobile

Awards where a win could bring considerable kudos and publicity.

Seek out referrals, free or through paid ads (N.B. don’t buy links from irrelevant sites)

from the mobile sites of your business partners. The planning tools from Google and

other mobile advertising networks can help discover the most relevant sites.

Page 15: 10 Tips To Drive More Traffic To Your Mobile Site

Final word

All the information you just read was given to limited amount of people. And now you

know it too. Remember what Nathan Rothschild said: “Who owns the information - owns

the world”. Now it’s up to you to decide what to do with this.

If you want to succeed in your business, sale more products, goods or provide services to

more people, then you must have a mobile optimized site. Well if you don’t have one,

sooner or later, you will see how sales are dropping down. I don’t want that for you. I want

you to be successful, no matter who you are and what are you doing.

But we can help you to scale your business!

We are company that creates mobile optimized sites and apps for business. We can provide

mobile websites including following features:

1. Content Pages – we will customize and enhance content pages. About us / Menu /

Products / Services Pages

2. Photo Gallery – we can add photo gallery to your site

3. Click-to-Call Button – with one click, potential customers can call your business.

4. Map Directions – a Google map can show location.

5. Social Networking – links to social networking websites (facebook, twitter,

youtube etc)

6. Links – link to desktop website, blog, or links to other relevant sites.

7. Working Hours – working hours page

8. Email Contact Form – customers can drop a line without ever having to leave

website and many more.

Also we got many different layouts and color schemes to customize your website and make

it unique and original.

You can find us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Mobylabs

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Moby_Labs

Or e-mail to: [email protected]

To your success, William