GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 11 - January 2010

tant pages within your site, and that are optimized for thosekeywords. External Inbound Links – Think global or international when building links to yourWeb site. When optimizing anormalWeb site, SEOsbuild links from similar domain extensions. So if you had website.es, you would build links from other .es domains and Spanish-language Web sites. In themobileworldany link is significant and can rapidly earn you top spots. Back links inmobile SEO help re- gardlessof thedomainextension. Optimizing for iPhone iPhonesaccount foronly 1%of theoverall sales in themobilemarket, reporting just under 10million units sold in 2008. Al- though this isaminute figure, I think that the compatibility standards set by Apple will soon become the norm, as they are cross-compatible with standard mobile phoneaswell asnext-genmobilephones. With that inmind here are a few tips for iPhones: Max. 10MBhtml size Limit Javascript to5 seconds Limit Javascript allocations to 10MB Max. 8documentsdue topageview limitations QuickTime is thepreferredapp for videoandaudio PPC–PayPerClick PPC is probably one of the best tools the mobilemarketerhas, especially if youcan participate in thePayPerCall strategyof- feredbyGoogle. This not only gets you to the top of Google’s mobile results page (provided you have set up amobile-only campaign in Google AdWords), it also enables the end-user one-click access to call you and (with iPhone, Gphone andmany others) get immediatedirections toyourbusiness viaGoogleMapsor aGPSenableapp. KeyFactors Be sure you have reduced your page termsdown.Don’tusebuffer terms like youwould onnormalWeb pages.Mis- spellings are more apparent inmobile thananywhereelsebecauseof tinykey- boards, big fingers and laziness. Imag- ine typingona tinykeyboardwhileona trainorwalking.Reduceyour titlesand • • • • • • if possibleevenbuild subpages formis- spellings. Place a CTA (call to action) page one step from your landing page, or better yet make it the landing page. Naviga- tion hurts when you’re mobile so the page that you want to show people should be the first page and no more than 1 extra click. Choose the right keywords. The more related they are to people on themove thebetter (e.g., casinosnear [variable], hotels in [variable]).More importantly, the shorter thebetter (casino [variable] andhotel [variable]). USE IT! – If you spend the resources on building amo- bile Web site, you need to spend a few quid/bucks/ euros on PPC. The cost is very minimal in most mar- kets and you don’t need to be a whiz-kid. This will get you ranking high in many secondary mobile search engines as well and provide the traffic todetermine if it’s worth investing additional resources. Although the mobile market hasn’t taken off, there are plenty of success stories out there that make you stop and wonder if this issomethingyou should target more heavily. Just take a look at some of the hundreds of applications on iPhone. There are apps that locate and call the nearest cab, list the nearest restaurants or even give reviews on local hotels. All are based off of GPS location–now that’s cool! Twitter and other social networks (which are absolutelyhuge) have apps that show you who’s Twittering that shares your interest and is locatednear you. With online dating becoming more ac- ceptable every day, I can see a whole new generation of 5-minute-dating sites springing up soon that are based on your location. Some retail stores have apps that allow you to input the bar codenumbers toob- tain prices, while grocery stores compile • • • a running “tally” while you shop so you canwatchwhat you are spending (watch out, ladies!). Others are launching cou- pon schemes that allow you to display the coupon on-screen and effectively re- mit the coupon in store fromyourmobile (watchout,men!). Ifyouare inrealestate, thinkof the things that can be done with GPS and online apps. A potential buyer drives through a neighborhood looking for homes and finds a few that look good from the out- side. He goes to yourWeb site (using the information on the For Sale sign), looks at pictures or even a walk-through video and Shazam! –You have a prospect who was house shopping that Sunday you wereoff at thebiggame. Imust admit, I am a gadget guy and the fact that mobile web didn’t take off in 2009 was disappointing to say the least. But mark my words: it’s a hidden tiger getting ready topounce. Thecurrenteconomicclimatehasn’tdone anything tohelpout our industry. In fact, these days you have towork hard just to stand still. Taking advantage of everyop- portunity is important to remaining suc- cessful. Take it fromme – the researching-need- it-now SEO guy that’s killing time – on my iPhone. Although the mobile market hasn’t taken off, there are plenty of success storiesout there that make you stop and wonder if this is somethingyou should target more heavily. 30 Mobile SEO