Originally Posted on the WebProNews Video Blog on 01/25/07:
http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/01/25/gearing-up-for-mobile-search/
I got to do a video interview with Web Pro News. Take a look and laugh along with me. They didn’t tell me where to look, and there were multiple cameras, and tons of people walking by. I stand by what I said, but I can’t defent the weird facial expressions and wandering eyes!
Originally Posted on the WebProNews Video Blog on 01/25/07:
http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/01/25/gearing-up-for-mobile-search/
When talking about search engine optimization, one immediately associates the practices are leveraged toward the traditional realms of web search. Many are predicting, however, that the ?next big thing? in search may be the acknowledgment that users are spending less time in front of PCs, and are instead utilizing mobile devices to search and surf the web.
There are estimates floating around that put mobile users somewhere around the neighborhood of 300 million by 2010, give or take a year or two. While the prediction-based statistics may not be necessarily exact, the rising trend in mobile usage is impossible to deny.
So, as mobile users begin to depend on their devices for search, the onus then shifts squarely to webmasters and SEOs to not only gear online content to not only rank well within the sphere of traditional web search, but also to focus on streamlining page design to rank in mobile search as well.
Mobile SEO, however, may look a little different than current practices. While engines like Google have spiders that crawl the web in order to browse content, sites optimized for mobile still have to submit their pages to the engines to be included within the index.
There is also a stylistic element to consider when optimizing a site for mobile browsing. First of all, not all mobile devices employ the same browser software, so it then becomes imperative to stick to the basics of XHTML, CSS, and SEO best practices in order to ensure the cleanest viewing experience for the mobile user.
Incidentally, WebProNews had the chance to interview Cindy Krum, an SEO analyst from Blue Moon Works. She had a lot of interesting insights on mobile SEO and what the future holds for the platform, as well as elaborating a bit further on the importance of back end design practices.
Looking around, I see more and more of my friends making use of text messaging, mobile e-mail applications, and web browsers on their telephones. This trend is only going to continue, and as it does, optimizing sites for both traditional and mobile search is going to become a top priority.