After months of speculation, rumours about a GPhone that would take on Apple’s iPhone and forum postings and blogosphere posts Google has made public its plans to bid in an upcoming Federal wireless spectrum auction.

Technicalities aside the question fro webmasters is: what is Google doing exactly and how does this affect your search engine optimisation options for your website. To answer that question exactly it is best to examine Google’s apparent business model here.

Obviously Google is determined to deliver wireless internet access without the need to be tied down to a computer. The mobile phone market is a lot bigger than the PC one and it lends huge potential to anyone who can utilise it properly.

With the recent their recent partnership with Sprint which allows phones using the network to integrate easily Gmail, Google search and GTalk Google signalled the direction it is taking: It delivers the same ease of use of applications and ease of access in terms of search to mobile users that it delivers to PC users.

Google strategists know that the Achilles heel in any deal is the ability of ‘partner’ networks and competing carriers to restrict access of end users to Google services. This type of restriction seriously affects the revenue streams of the search engine giant and it will naturally want to minimise that potential threat.

Google may well end up owning the 700MHz spectrum but it is unlikely it will build its own network not because it is expensive but because of the time it takes to actually get it in place and then operate it. It is more likely that it will seek creative partnerships with focused but smaller operators who are unable to compete for it because they have not got the cash required but who have the drive and ability to deliver what Google expects.

At this point, of course, it is all speculation. Google is pursuing an aggressive policy of slamming current operators in Capital Hill, making deals with them behind closed doors, partnering up with them in network deals and setting up to compete with them by acquiring exclusive bandwidth spectrum rights.

What can be said with certainty is the fact that Google is poised to deliver significant content over mobile phone platforms and wireless access points and for the webmaster who is busy optimising their website as well as the SEO engineer thinking ahead on how to best serve his customers the effect is going to be obvious: Localised search terms and localised visibility are going to be important for those whose online business presence or online business model stand to benefit from such approach.

Imagine, for instance, a Google Search using a mobile phone that will bring up all coffee shops within a one mile area of where the phone’s user is. Or all take-away restaurants, or all wholesale leather goods suppliers. You begin to get the picture.

Admittedly we are not there yet. But those who want to succeed begin to think of the possibilities now and start to optimise their websites accordingly.

The timetable may be uncertain but the direction is clear and those who can plan and take advantage of it will suddenly find that their websites become a primary source of offline as well as online business.