Tag Archives: Mobile Search

Mobile Search – SEO Update From Zenergy Works

Posted on by

Our weekly SEO Blog Post and mobile search updates are designed to share online marketing news with our current SEO clients and the world. Enjoy, and please give us your feedback on any subjects you would like to know more about.

Duck Duck Go Hits A Search Milestone on Monday, eclipsing 2 million direct searches in a day for the first time in its history.

DuckDuckGo

In a testament to multi-media promotion, the increase in direct searches from 1.8 million on Sunday to 2.2 million most likely was a result of the Bloomberg TV appearance by DuckDuckGo founder and CEO, Gabriel Weinberg in a segment entitled,  “The Search Engine that Vows Not to Track You.” The current news about a tracking scandal involving the major search engines and their tracking policies no doubt had a role in fueling the increased search traffic. To keep this in perspective, Google fields over a billion direct searches per day.

Google States it Will Begin to penalize rankings in mobile search for Sites that do not have a good user experience in mobile search.

Google’s Yoshikiyo Kato and Pierre Far discussed the change in a blog post:

To improve the mobile search experience for smartphone users and address their pain points, we plan to roll out several ranking changes in the near future that address sites that are misconfigured for smartphone users.

The 2 main problems will be when a user is redirected to a mobile website instead of a page with mobile optimized content for the subject matter that they are requesting, and error messages and blank pages that smartphone searchers receive on some website pages that are not mobile optimized.

New Study from Kentico States that Shoppers still prefer the in person shopping experience.

The following is a quote from Kentico’s ongoing Digital Experience Research:

“Our survey suggests that while shoppers like the convenience of shopping online via mobile devices, they still want as much of an in-store experience as possible,” said Kentico CEO and Founder Petr Palas. “While it may be impossible for businesses to provide mobile shoppers with a 100 percent in-store experience, they need to make mobile shoppers ‘feel’ as if they’re truly in their stores, touching their products, talking to sales reps and being catered to.

Kentico’s study went on to outline the following findings:

  • 85 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile devices to comparison shop
  • 45 percent of smartphone comparison shoppers will do so from the store’s actual location
  • 74 percent of smartphone, tablet and laptop owners say buying on a mobile device is often determined by the mobile site’s look and feel

Bottom Line: The online world continues to send mixed signals, but one signal is clear from the Kentico study: 44 percent of mobile searchers will not return to a website that is not optimized for mobile. With mobile search continuing to grow, and Google beginning to penalize sites that do not provide a positive mobile search experience, the time is now to make sure that your site is optimized for mobile search, preferably by using responsive design, is now.

Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based SEO, Website Design and Development, and Online Marketing Firm.

How to Reach Customers Using Mobile Search

Posted on by

Local SEO services has a few different mobile search criteria-including load time and proper rendering of your site in mobile environments. Mobile Searchers are typically more tech-savvy and less patient with website shortcomings, so how can a webmaster or business owner create a mobile web presence that appeals to this new, growing and ready to buy sector of search traffic?

Mobile Search

Responsive Website Design. A responsive website design should render properly in whatever device it appears on. A complete page that renders properly on all devices will help to create high rankings for that website on mobile search, not to mention a positive user experience that will make conversion more likely.

Optimize Local Search. Local search results, like Google + Places, are designed for mobile users, who are usually searching for 3 key components: Location, Hours of Operation, and Reviews. Make sure that your local listings are complete and up to date and that you continue to encourage customers to place reviews on your local sites.

Match Analytics to Site Performance. Website analytics will show you which devices are being used to view your site, and the growth in mobile traffic. Use these numbers as a guide in optimizing your local search. Make sure that you test your site for compatibility with the browsers that your clients are using, and if you see a flat or small increase in mobile traffic, it is almost a sure sign that you are not delivering a positive mobile site user experience, as the amount of mobile searches being done is definitely growing.

Bottom Line: Mobile search is continuing to increase, and the growth in traditional search is flat or decreasing. Make sure that your mobile presence delivers a positive user experience by rendering properly in mobile search environments and providing clear information about locations, specials, hours of operation and a quick profile of your business.

Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based SEO, Website Design and Development, and Online Marketing Firm.

Google and Bing – Desktop Search Surge in October

Posted on by

According to comScore’s October 2012 Explicit Core Search Share Report , Google and Bing both hit record highs in search market share in the United States in October of this year.

 Google vs Bing

Google’s search market share rose two-tenths of a point, from 66.7 percent in September to 66.9 percent in October. Bing gained a tenth of a point and reached 16 percent in October. Both of those numbers represent all-time highs using comScore’s estimates. Yahoo was static for the month at 12.2% and Ask Network’s share was down from 3.5% in September of 2012 to 3.2% in October of 2012 and AOL was static at 1.8% over the same time period.  These are measures of “Explicit Core Search, “which excludes contextually driven searches that do not necessarily reflect use intent to review the search results.

Desktop search activity was up to 17.6 billion in October, an increase of 8% from the previous month. Desktop search activity had been declining since March, reflecting a move to mobile search. Mobile search is estimated to comprise between 10 and 30 percent of all searches currently, depending on the category being searched.

Bottom Line: The previous high for desktop searches was 18.4 billion in March of this year. Desktop search will typically increase during the winter months, as internet searchers move indoors and use readily available desktop devices to search online. This tells me that while Mobile search is growing, desktop is still preferred for many searches when it is readily available. This gap will close as the mobile devices become more user friendly (like Apple’s Siri).

Eric Van Cleave is a Partner in Zenergy Works, A Santa Rosa, California based Website Development and Online Marketing Firm.

Translate »