If you have a visual image in your mind of your potential customer switching on their laptop or PC somewhere, logging in and accessing the web and then beginning the entire range of processes which involved search, a visit to your website, possible research and a visit back to your website, in order to make a purchase, then, you’re a little out of date.
While PC or laptop based users still make up a sizeable proportion of the web’s population, they are eclipsed by the number of people who own mobile devices which, when it comes to the web, are always on.
A ComScore study showed that in 2011 the number of mobile device users (and this includes tablets as well as smartphones) who accessed social networks grew by 37% and that more than 50% of the mobile device population accessed social media networks on a daily basis.
We used to assess the potential worth of a market by the percentage of users which owned computers and had internet access. ‘Internet Penetration’ used to be a metric that was bandied around by marketers and corporate presenters because it represented the ability of a company’s web presence to reach a certain percentage of the country’s population (and its potential target audience) and the size of a potential market.
Internet penetration, however, is now a largely meaningless term. When smartphone owners can access Facebook, Twitter and practically any website, on the go, from anywhere, and when tablet owners can jump to anywhere they want from anywhere there is a wi-fi spot the idea that the internet is a fixed point of access which someone has only at home or at work is, quite frankly, so far out of date as to verge on verge on the ridiculous.
Mobile devices which provide an always-on point of connection are the driving principle that’s now blurring the lines of online and offline. Before the smartphone and tablet explosion the division was easy to draw. Online was what you did when you were at home or at work, offline was what you did the moment you left your desk in order to go and buy the smartphone you researched while you were on the web.
The degree to which mobile devices blur this line is perfectly illustrated by original research carried out by Google (amongst others) which shows that today’s consumers see a product, scan it (or photograph it) using a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) price-compare it on the web, access reviews about it and proceed to make a purchase.
When you carry your world with you, through mobile device access to your online connection the hard division between online and offline is softened to one of functionality. There are still some functions and some actions (like the simple one of having thirty tabs open on a browser and flicking between them all) which still work best with a mouse, a right-click ability and a keyboard than a touchscreen.
Mobile devices, by their very functionality and connectivity do two things: first they drive localisation. Geo location is now frightfully important. A local business that has failed to geo tag itself to help Google mobile search index it properly is losing money. A local business that does not show up on Google maps is also losing money. Secondly, they focus the end-user.
According to a study from mobile ad network Jumptap and ComScore, 63 percent of tablet owners have made a purchase with their device, as opposed to just 31 percent of mobile owners. That compares to 83 percent of PC owners who have completed a purchase on their laptop or desk computer.
The reason for this is the medium. A tablet may feel like a PC screen but it isn’t. It’s more like a smartphone screen that’s three times larger. Although they could navigate away from the current screen, do their research and come back to it, it is much harder to do than when on a PC or laptop. As a result, a combination of less choice and greater focus tends to lead to better conversion rates for eCommerce websites that are accessed through mobile devices. This changes everything.
As the ComScore study suggested:
Advertisers and marketers should take note – mobile users are not only engaging with their friends through social networking, but a majority are also interacting with brands in these social media environments. Knowing that fans and followers engage with branded content on mobile devices opens the door to a world of opportunity for location-based services.
Google continues to drive traffic. Its recent announcement of its streamlining of its privacy rules across all its properties has little to do with any changes towards the end-user (you still continue to be in control of your data and privacy) and a lot to do with the ability of all its Google properties to share information about you amongst them, which means expect to see more highly targeted traffic being delivered by Google on mobile search ads.
Comscore, again, showed that when it comes to mobile traffic three out of five users access mobile content through apps (even HelpMySEO is available for the Tablet or Android phone user). This means that websites which are not mobile friendly or have no apps for mobile devices also risk missing out on a large slice of the pie.
I know, going online, used to be simple. You only had to struggle with website designers who did not quite get your vision, and web developers who wanted to charge you for every change in the code and then you just needed some great hosting and you were up and running. Now things are no longer so easy. The web has diversified and, in the case of some smartphone platforms, it is even fragmenting. Making sure that you are ideally positioned to take advantage of all this is a full time job.
The good news is that you can still do it without getting to the stage where you begin to doubt the wisdom of working online for yourself.
Standard search (and therefore ‘standard’ SEO) are still valid. Tablets, usually, access the web just like PCs and Google search is no different for them. Whatever you are doing, right now, for SEO, you need to continue to do (probably more so, given Google’s changes regarding social search).
Here are some steps to help you position yourself better:
01. Social Media is important. You should be socialising your website’s content and have in place a social media strategy, complete with social media sharing channels.
02. Geo-location is vital. If you run a local business you should have your site geo-tagged and have a presence on Google maps. Your local address and phone number should be displayed on your site and your business phone number should be on Google maps.
03. Do not neglect your SEO. The Google mobile index contains sites which have been optimised for the mobile web (essentially content is repurposed for display in the smaller screens of smartphones). Where there is a lack of a mobile site your normal site will show up. It is up to you to make sure that it is at least passable on a smartphone screen.
04. Have an app. I know this sounds expensive, or at least it is an additional expense at a time when perhaps every penny counts. Don’t despair. There is a Google app called Currents which will allow you to create an app for your site’s content, for free and place a link to it from your site, for Android users to access. For a step-by-step guide on how to do this just click here or check it out in the useful links at the bottom of this page.
05. Do not neglect your Hosting. The quality of your hosting is now really important. Sites which deliver 404s, or site down messages get marked by Google for lower ranking. Sites which deliver slow pages because the hosting server is not good enough, also fall by the wayside.
06. Check mobile traffic. Google Analytics gives you a good picture of the mobile traffic that reaches your site. Make sure you check up on that and analyse its behaviour.
Work all this into your routine for running your online business and you should soon see some improvements in your mobile market traffic which should filter in your bottom line.
How Search is Changing the Online Purchasing Process
Use the web to drive customers to your door at a local level
How to Geo Tag your website and promote your services to local customers
How important are meta tags for your SEO?
HelpMySEO Content App
Why Good Hosting Helps Your SEO
Get Your Content in Google Currents and Reach Mobile Device Users
US Mobile Social Media Usage Grows (ComScore research)
Mobile Ad Spending to Exceed 2.6 billion in 2012
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