Marketing Strategies for Mobile

As mobile devices become more and more popular, the importance mobile marketing becomes greater as well. Cindy Krum of Rank-Mobile always keeps us updated on what’s going on in the mobile market and this video from SES New York is no exception.

Cindy actively promotes having only one website by making your existing website provide mobile capabilities too. The same goes with marketing strategies. Cindy suggests that businesses integrate their mobile marketing strategy into their existing marketing strategy to get the best results.

The mobile Web is not just the current trend; it’s here to stay. Not only Cindy, but also many others including Dr. Vint Cerf, believe mobile will play a large role in the future. Based upon that information, Cindy believes if you embrace mobile now, you have the opportunity to pull ahead of your competitors.

So how do you integrate mobile into your overall marketing strategy? Here are a few quick tips from Cindy:

- Follow all traditional and local SEO best practices
- Provide info relevant to mobile users
- Submit your site to mobile search engines and directions
- Don’t rely on: Embedded images, Objects, Scripts, Frames, Flash, Pop-up Windows, Mouse-over trends

There are many mobile applications for search, which are taking feeds from existing search engines and integrating results into their own. Determine where they are getting their data from and make sure you are ranking well there. For mobile SEO, Cindy suggests coding in XHTML, employing multiple style sheets, and using CSS.

For more information on Cindy’s mobile strategies, check out Rank-Mobile.

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Adapting to the Growing Mobile Sector

While there was not a specific session dedicated to mobile at SMX West, it still proved to be a hot topic. As Cindy Krum points out in this video, mobile was discussed in many sessions at the show.

Mobile is being integrated into many areas such as analytics and online and offline business. In particular with online and offline business, mobile helps to bridge the gap between the two.

Mobile has become increasingly popular in the entire industry because it plays a large role in what we can expect. As many people have predicted, everyone will have a Web-enabled device in the future. Cindy explains how this prediction not only means mobile phones, but also indicates Web-enabled devices such as a GPS, MP3, and camera.

Another contributing factor to add to the popularity of mobile is the continuing changes of the mobile search algorithm. As it gets smarter, it can recognize the Web-enabled device and then personalize search results based upon what it knows. For example, Cindy describes how the owners of a Sidekick and Blackberry are very different people and that the mobile algorithm can acknowledge that.

Most importantly, websites need to be ready to adapt to these mobile devices. Cindy recommends that webmasters use a “device independent design” which would allow the site to run on any device. People using mobile devices have an immediate need and a website should be prepared to respond to it efficiently.

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Understanding How Net Neutrality Affects Search Marketing

Although network neutrality is an issue that could affect everyone, it seems that people are either not concerned or simply unaware of its potential. One industry that seems to be completely blinded by its capabilities is surprisingly, the search marketing industry. In the above video Cindy Krum of Rank-Mobile discusses what would happen to search marketers if net neutrality is not preserved.

According to the nonpartisan and nonprofit advocacy organization Common Cause, the definition of net neutrality is as follows:

“Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be able to access any web content they choose and use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by their Internet service provider.”

If net neutrality is not preserved, sites that we use and depend on everyday such as Google and Facebook would not be here. If you remember, the Federal Communications Commission recently cracked down on Comcast for throttling content from BitTorrent and ultimately called it a matter of free speech.

Now, how does all this affect search marketing? If you have a lot of rich media content on your site that is being throttled by broadband providers, you will have to pay more in PPC because it will decrease your quality score. Also, if your content is throttled, the load time will be slow. Your load time affects SEO and PPC meaning that it will drive your costs in PPC up and drive your rankings and SEO down. Does it seem relevant now?

Ironically, the Wall Street Journal published a report today saying Google no longer supports net neutrality. While citing undisclosed sources, the Journal accused Google of approaching major cable and phone companies with a proposition to get preferential treatment for both incoming and outgoing traffic from its sites.

The newspaper went on to report that one major cable company “in talks with Google” said it has been hesitant to make a deal in fear of violating the FCC guidelines.

Richard Whitt of Google’s Washington-based telecom and media counsel responded to the accusations on Google’s Public Policy Blog saying the report was based upon a misunderstanding regarding edge caching. The flexibility of edge caching allows broadband providers to implement network upgrades but does not give them the privilege to “hamper user choice, competition, and innovation.” This practice of edge caching does not violate any net neutrality laws.

Whitt wraps up his post with the following statement:

“Google remains strongly committed to the principle of net neutrality, and we will continue to work with policymakers in the years ahead to keep the Internet free and open.”

In summary, educate yourself on these issues and support legislation to protect net neutrality.

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