SES San Jose 2007 Day 3 – Mobile Search Optimization

Moderator:
Detlev Johnson, VP, Director of Consulting, Position Technologies
Search Engine Marketing Speakers:
Cindy Krum, Senior SEO Analyst, Blue Moon Works
Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing, iCrossing
Gregory Markel, Founder/President, Infuse Creative, LLC

Cindy Crum, Blue Moon Works

– Many aspects of Mobile Optimization follow Traditional SEO Wisdom
– Optimal Mobile Experience = Return Mobile Traffic = Better Results in Mobile Search Engines
– Device Independence: Traditional sites being viewed on Mobile Technology

What is Different About Mobile?
– Industry is in infancy
– Different bots / Crawlers
– Mobile Search Engines More Like Portals
– Many Different Browsers possible
– Slow Download Speed and Connectivity Issues

Development Best Practices
XHTML
Traditional Browsers are forgiving – Mobile Browsers are not
Infinite Combinations possible
Right Accessibility Standards Make it ideal
Avoid unnecessary code
Separate Content from design with CSS

External CSS
– Separates content from design
– Minimizes Code Required
– Decreases Load Time
– Ensures Correct Display on Different Screen Resolutions
– Allows you to specify rendering

Have mobile specific stylesheets
– One set of code, two stylesheets
– Screen first, handheld is second one in cascade
– Caveat: “display:none” to hide elements in either rendering

Use appropriate headers – HTTP User-agent, Accept and MIME types

iPhone

Google has a separate search page for the iPhone

Log in omitted, features and some ads are omitted

Follow all SEO Best Preactices
– Minimize File Size
– Submit your Site to Mobile Search Engines

Testing is important
– Opera, Skeezer, Google device simulators
– Test transcoded versus non-transcoded versions of Your Site

Validate your Site with mobile code checkers…

Embrace the Interactivity
– Provide relevant Info for People who are mobile
– Include your main address in the footer
– Make Phone Numbers and Email Addresses

Move your navigation to the bottom

Gregory Markel, Infuse Creative, LLC

No longer a WAP/Mobi world

Nokia S60 and Opera True web browser

Goog-411 (live demo rendered incorrect result)

Get listed in Google Local Business Listings

.mobi is diminishing in important

Optimization is synomonous with marketing

Mobile voice search is becoming more important

Rachel Pasqua, iCrossing

iCrossing started looking at mobile in 2005

3rd screen will come first

2.3 billion mobile subscribers as opposed to 1 billion users

Summarized the iCrossing “How America Searches Mobile, April 2007” report