Does our website pass for a mobile website?

…since it looks the same on my Blackberry as it does on a PC?

We were discussing local search marketing, which overlaps with mobile search marketing.  I gave a pretty quick response since we were whispering under other people, but here are the main questions to answer when deciding if you need to invest in mobile website design…

• Does your website use Flash?
  • Flash does not render on iphones or ipad.  If your website degrades nicely with an image replacing a flash banner, that will pass for a mobile device.  If you turn off Flash in your  browser and it looks like crap, you probably need a mobile version.
• Can you read and navigate the website on a mobile phone?
  • His website showed everything, but you had to zoom in and pan around to read anything.
  • Are the buttons and points of action easy to read and use?

Mobile Website Verses Mobile Friendly Website

Think less about rendering technicalities and more about if the interface is mobile friendly.  A mobile friendly website will generally have less text and big buttons for the main points of action, in a horizontal row that you can scroll through – no zooming/panning needed.  Points of action (phone number, address, button for map/directions, etc) are all laid out on separate lines with enough space to put a finger on each one.

Example:  look at a Wikipedia article on your phone.  You’ll see a paragraph of intro text followed by buttons to read more from the various areas.  You don’t just scroll through the whole article in one page.  Content for background, history, resources, etc is replaced by a big button for each.

You can create a free mobile website using the tools in Bing Business Portal.  It is a template based mobile website, branded with Bing where you control the colors and content.  However the options are pretty limited.  At least it gives a basic start for a mobile website.

Mobile Website SEO Technical Issues

JavaScript can be used to detect the browser. If it is a mobile browser, JavaScript can redirect to the mobile website.  A link/button can also be provided for the user to switch between mobile and standard website.  We can avoid duplicate content by using canonical tags on the mobile site pointing to the standard site.  If you use a sub-domain, like http://mobile.website.com,?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss search engines are working on eliminating duplicate content issues between mobile and standard.

The post Mobile Website Design: Do I Need to Create Mobile Versions of My Website? appeared first on Blend SEO.

Free Mobile Website and Local Listings from Bing Business Portal

The tools for local search marketing are changing quickly as mobile search explodes and overlaps with social media marketing.  Smart phone, Android phone, iPhone, tablet PC, and iPad popularity is growing the market for local search.

Throughout this article, I explain the new features of the Bing Business Portal compared to Google and Yahoo products along with SEO tips to maximize its benefits. The big WOW about the new Bing Business Portal is that it not only gives merchants an easy place to list local business locations (enabling exposure to local and map search), the new product area helps you create a free mobile website, mirroring the products you load into the Bing shopping engine and your local listing information.  This mobile website has its own shortened URL you can share in Facebook, and a Facebook Like button built in (later in this article, I’ll share an SEO secret about Facebook likes).  You can even generate your mobile website’s QR code to download and print onto a window sticker or distribute throughout your area.  Using a few tricks to detect the browser and redirect, or just a simple link, this mobile website provided by Bing can be integrated into your main desktop website – or stand alone if it is your initial entry into internet marketing.

Bing Business Portal - mobile search marketing

Bing Local Business Listings Compared to Google and Yahoo

Bing has combined some really convenient features of Google and Yahoo that simplify your business’s launch into mobile search marketing, starting from square one.  You don’t need a website or a physical storefront (though you likely have one or the other), yet you can end up with a Facebook friendly mobile website, local map listings so you appear in map search results and product listings so you can appear in Bing shopping results.

Details

The Listings section starts with straight forward business Details tab similar to the Local Listing Center that was replaced, with a nice new interface.

Local Business Listing Details

Like Yahoo, you have a choice whether or not to display your business address.  This is great news for internet only businesses run from a private home or location without a storefront.  Like Google’s local listing process, you must first search for your business by phone number.  Either choose an existing listing to take over or create a new one.  Either way, you must verify ownership by phone or mail.

SEO TIP: This may not surprise you, but use keywords in the business name and in any other fields whenever possible.  Fill out as many fields as possible. Bing even tells you straight out in their Learn more infographic “…the more information you have added to your listing, the easier it will be to find your business online.”

Profile

Next tab is the Profile.  Like Google and Yahoo, you may choose categories (called Specialties in Bing) under which your business can be listed.  Bing lets you choose up to 5 specialties.  Unique to Bing, you may then use interactive sliders to prioritize the different areas. 

SEO TIP: if you don’t fit into 5 categories, try to find 5 that at least are related, especially if they contain any form of your core keywords.

Mobile

QR Code

Mobile, the next tab under Listings produces your FREE mobile website, as well as a QR Code.  The QR code is a bar code that people can scan with their mobile phone that will take them right to your mobile website.  It’s sort of like plastering your domain name on a sign, except there’s no need to remember the URL and type it into a browser.  The only downside to QR codes is that you can’t integrate a recognizable brand into it, like you do with a domain name.  Its an unrecognizable pattern of black and white boxes.  Now that would be something if you can customize your QR code to include your logo.  Let me know if you find out how to do that.  The upside for the QR code and its whole reason for existence is NO TYPING – one of the great enablers of mobile search.  On your way into a store, scan the QR code in the storefront window with your mobile device and the website pops right up.

You can start listing your categories and products here under the Mobile tab of the Listings section, but its probably easier to wait until you get to the Products section where you will fill out all the details.

Photos

Unlike Yahoo, you can upload up to 9 photos for your listing for free.  Yahoo used to let you upload 2 photos free and more for the paid listing.  Now, Yahoo reserves all photos for the paid listing.  Bing gives you 9 photos for your listing. 

SEO TIP: Use all 9 photos and don’t upload them.  Instead use the link option.  This lets you use photos hosted on your main website domain.  These each act as a link from an authority website (Bing).  They are not as powerful as anchor text links, but they are links from Bing.com nonetheless.

More Details

Bing Local Listing Details Influence SEO

The More Details tab lets you further optimize and fill in additional information using forms that you would recognize from Google local listings.  These include year established, company tagline, business description, languages spoken, hours of operation, payment types accepted, parking options, brands carried, professional associations and your marker location on the map. 

SEO TIP: Bing encourages users to fill out as many details as possible, since this is a way of optimizing your listing so that it can be accurately indexed in search results.

Publish

The last tab, Publish, gives you a preview of your local listing, links to your mobile site and a download for your QR code window sticker.  Also in this tab are tools to design the look of your mobile website.  The default colors are determined by the logo.  From there you can customize the colors and background texture.

Get Products in Bing Shopping Search Engine

The Products area is not as easy as you might expect.  Unlike Google Merchant there is currently no option for an RSS feed or spreadsheet.  Its up to you to painstakingly input each product and description into the fields.  Also, don’t get confused by what is intended as product categories and actual products.  The first step is to list your menu items or product categories, followed by sub-categories.  And be careful, this is still in BETA – I was not able to delete unused menu items.  Therefore I suggest editing the default menu items before creating new ones.  Once you fill in the title and description for the first menu item, it will be updated in the left column, where you can select that menu item to start adding its sub menu item, and then products for the sub menu item.  The point of entering this hierarchy is to create your navigable mobile website.

Free Mobile Website

Hands down the most exciting part of the Bing Business Portal, over Google or Yahoo is the promise of a free mobile website and its QR Code, compatible with Facebook, complete with like button.

SEO TIP: I’ve noticed a correlation between Facebook likes and rankings in Bing web search results.  Also, if your customers use the Facebook like function with location enabled, it creates a location specific search signal similar to the reviews you may see listed in your Google maps place page that are pulled from various websites that list your business name and address with associated reviews. Encourage your customers to Facebook like you.  Keep the QR code handy so they can scan it and hit the like button.  This could be as simple as a sign next to the register or tip jar: We accept and appreciate Facebook likes – just scan the bar code and hit the like button.

Why Buys

Bing Why Buys for SEO

Once you get past the product categories and into the products, you find name, price, description, photos and Why Buys.   In the Learn More area, Bing suggests using the Why Buys for search engine optimization (SEO).  Bing explains (in not these exact terms) that Why Buys are conversion messages about your product that help it appear in search results.  In a nutshell this is where you list your product benefits.

SEO TIP: In the WHY BUYS list the problems your potential customers are searching online to solve, as well as the variations of the product name or application.  This is the perfect example of combined conversion and SEO that must be compressed into ten concise statements.

As you build your product categories, products, descriptions and why buys, you are actually building the mobile website.  The seemingly unnecessary hierarchy  you are forced to provide for each product builds the categories and subcategories in your mobile website, allowing the user to drill down different areas to read more.  The mobile interface is limited to menu lists where you can select one item from a list of categories to see the sub categories, followed by  the list of products.  Select a product to see the name, description, price, photo and up to 10 reasons to buy.

Deals

Bing Local Listing Deals for SEO

Once you have the workings of an online store in mobile website format, you can set up deals.  The Deals area seems self explanatory.  List your sales.  A similar free feature like this is also available in Google places.  This is not the same thing as running a mobile pay per click ad.  The deals do not directly give you more prominence, however, this is an opportunity to grow your variety of keyword stemming to further optimize your listing.

People

The People tab is an area where you can manage account users for your Bing Business Portal.  Similar to the account management abilities in Google products.  Here you can add users and set their level of access, allowing your team members to input products, business locations, etc.

SEO and Marketing Conclusions about the New Bing Business Portal

Bing obviously wants to gain traffic.  Without going head to head with Google’s web search, Bing makes a move into mobile search as the Decision Engine.  Of course all these products still affect general web search performed at a desktop or laptop.  However, mobile and local signals not only influence web search results, but are often injected directly into web search results.  Bing put together some really great free tools that have otherwise been paid tools from Bing and Yahoo.  Certainly we can assume Bing is providing these free tools to merchants to encourage more use of the Bing online properties.  However that does not take away from the value they provide.  Admittedly by Bing, these new local SEO tools will help you in other search engines besides just Bing.  Your mobile site is created and branded by Bing, however it is still searchable in Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc.  The content you create in your local listing, the reviews you get, the Facebook likes and the mobile website are all crawled and followed by Google.  What’s good for one search engine is often good for them all.

The post Local and Mobile Search Marketing Services from New Bing Business Portal appeared first on Blend SEO.

Google Office in Atlanta

Google invited 150 search marketing professionals along with Bing, Yahoo, Razorfish and 360i into the Atlanta Google office for a mobile search marketing event.  Each of the major search engines sat side by side along with Razorfish to speak on upcoming trends in mobile search and to answer our questions from search engine optimization consultants, internet marketing companies, web designers, creative agencies and any company providing SEM and SEO services among the 150 first people to make it through the door in Atlanta.

I was one of those 150 people.

The event was simulcast from Google Atlanta to offices in New York and Boston.  Limited audiences were invited to attend the event in New York and Boston.  A live feed from each office was projected on the wall in the Atlanta office alongside the speaker presentation screen.  The speakers responded to questions from all three locations.

The mobile search marketing speaker panel consisted of:

• Bing: Director of Bing Mobile Product Management – Andy Chu
• Yahoo: Senior Director, Mobile Sales Strategies – Paul Cushman
• Google: Senior Account Executive (Mobile Ads Team) – Elliott Nix
• Razorfish: VP of Mobile – Paul Gelb

I showed up a little early to make sure I had plenty of time to explore the Google office.  The office in Atlanta is a satellite office for Google, and as you might imagine looks like a small version of the California office descriptions, decorated with big red, yellow, green and blue circles in the carpet, carved into the walls, in the ceiling and repeated playfully throughout the decor.

After networking for about an hour with other SEM and SEO agency, marketing and designer SEMPO Atlanta members we settled down for the presentations.  After introductions by various sponsors and SEMPO officials we got to the speaker presentations.  Razorfish went first, followed by Yahoo, Bing, then Google.

Whether intended or not, the reoccurring theme behind was how human behavior drives mobile search. Here’s a synopsis of their presentations.

Paul Gelb, Vice President of Mobile for Razorfish opened with entertaining examples of mobile search niches based on available search apps.  Search apps are catered to every behavior: shopping, finding restaurants, finding directions and even finding public restrooms (complete with user reviews and ratings on cleanliness), one of which provided by Charmin, the toilet paper brand. Paul Gelb relates that particular search apps are used based on human behaviors.

Yahoo Mobile Search Presenter

Next Paul Cushman, Senior Director of Mobile Sales Strategies for Yahoo presented.  Paul presented some fresh demographic information from Yahoo and insights on how to predict mobile search trends.

• The overall age is a younger demographic engaged in mobile search.
• The average number of keywords in a mobile query is shorter than on desktop.
• Day parting is shifted as mobile search volume starts earlier in the day and lasts longer into the night.
• iPads and entertainment related search increased as people search on iPads during TV watching

Paul Cushman presented a study of search volume during 2010 Academy Awards.  TV commercial breaks were tracked against mobile web user traffic.  Results show tendencies of “co-browsing”: spikes in mobile search traffic during commercial breaks.

An audience member asked how to persuade mobile paid search programs to prospects who are still new to the idea of mobile search.   Paul pointed out how search behaviors for mobile, unlike desktop, follow common sense.  In other words, think about how you search on your phone and the trends pretty much match.

• People search while in the bathroom, instead of using a magazine.
• People grab their phone before getting out of bed and search.
• People search products to read reviews while at store locations before making buying decisions.

These search trends are pretty easy to explain to customers, however it is new and if someone is not ready to shift funds into a new platform, than its probably not right for them yet.

Bing Mobile Search Presenter

Andy Chu, Director of Bing Mobile Product Management spoke next.  Andy provided data and case studies illustrating further opportunities in mobile search marketing.  Andy through out a few user statistics, skipping over those covered by Paul Cushman’s Yahoo presentation.  He did however mention the 18-20 year old demographic is growing fastest, up 65%.

Andy explores two types of search activity: task centric and local centric.

Task Centric Search:
Bing, a Microsoft brand maintains its market differentiators for search as visually organized, following task centric needs.  Task centric search sessions may last an hour.

Local Centric Search:
Local centric searches are geographic related and usually are infotainment related – learn about restaurants or movies in order to make a decision and find a location.

• It takes 21 steps to choose a restaurant
• Mobile searches have 1.5 times more typos than desktop
• 60% of adults rate alternate input as lead enabling experiences
• 70% of tasks are completed within 1 hour

Bing studies on money saving tasks indicate:

• 56% iPhone users compare prices
• 5.3% consumers reddem mobile coupons
• 39% of businesses intend to use mobile coupons

Bing opinion on search apps verses browsers:

Distribution of apps is a challenge.  Regardless of the platform, users are provided hundreds of apps to scroll through.  Most app descriptions lack meaningful content (hello, optimize your apps anyone?). Therefore the apps are not effectively searchable.

Question from the audience:

What are the values of a mobile site verses desktop site?  Do you really need a mobile site?

Answer from Andy Chu of Bing:

Yes. Mobile sites have more interaction and click through.

Google Mobile Search Presenter

Elliot Nix, Senior Account Executive  of Google’s Mobile Ads Team presented last.

• 35% of Android search is via voice
• A study in Japan showed a mobile device is always within 3 feet
• Mobile search occurs in the bathroom
• 1 in 5 adults check their mobile device before leaving bed in the morning
• 79% of retailers do not have a mobile site
• Google Analytics can track mobile app activity after the app is downloaded

The process for a mobile search strategy

1. Create a mobile site
2. Think mobile
3. Be discovered
4. Track (mobile independently)
5. Iterate

Audience Question: Does a slate or iPad device render desktop websites or is a 3rd version required after mobile?

Panel Answer: Most websites render fine on iPad, however flash is a problem.

Audience Question: How does +1 (plus one) affect search results?

Google Answer: +1 is a personal consumer tool, so it may affect organic search for that individual searching while logged into the account where +1 was used.

The original presentation can be found here:

• Paul Cushman, Yahoo:
  http://www.slideshare.net/sempoatlanta/sempo-mobile-yahoo?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
• Andy Chu, Bing:
  http://www.slideshare.net/sempoatlanta/sempo-mobile-bing?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
• Paul Gelb: Razorfish:
  http://www.slideshare.net/sempoatlanta/sempo-mobile-razorfish?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss
• Google’s presentation is not available online, but they have provided the link below.
  http://www.google.com/events/thinkmobile2011/livestream.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss

Links courtesy of Benjamin Rudolf, President SEMPO Atlanta.

The post Mobile Search Marketing Event: Google, Bing, Yahoo and Razorfish Live Presentations appeared first on Blend SEO.