After years of wondering whether mobile devices could actually contribute substantially to search, current figures of frantic growth suggest that the future of search lies in tablet and mobile optimization. As per a study done by comScore, mobiles and tablets now account for one out of three minutes that people spend on digital media.
Another study done by Marin Software suggests that Google could earn more than 5 Billion Dollars in revenue from tablet search alone in 2013. As costs of mobiles and tablets come down due to increased production and sales rise due to affordable rates, this healthy trend calls for renewed efforts to optimize search for these portable devices. In addition, the rise of social media and local search present excellent opportunities for tablet and mobile marketers to gain access to an untapped market.
Figures mentioned below should give an idea about the huge market that awaits enterprising marketers in coming times.
During 2012, 31 percent of people in the US alone used an e-reader or a tablet. As per figures released by Adobe, while sales of tablets in 2011 stood at 72.7 million units, they are expected to hit 383.3 million units by 2017. Mobiles too are expected to continue their frantic growth and currently there are 5 billion users of mobile phones globally with 1.1 billion being smartphone users.
Facebook mobile is currently being used by 488 million users and 13 percent of internet traffic all around the world is done by mobiles. 92 percent of mobile owners currently share videos on YouTube.
Mobile local ads too are expected to rise to 24 Billion Dollars by 2016. Google too has recognized this trend and changes made to local search, social signals, and SERP results display their changing focus on tablets and mobiles.
If you wish to track your mobile rankings then you need to start out by studying your current local rankings. You need to look at your local rankings in different locations as well as check rankings by different devices such as desktops, tablets, and mobiles. You also need to look at how visitors search for local locations in search boxes to get an idea about their specific needs.
Google has come to a conclusion that most tablet users usually conduct searches from their homes and have thus decided to club tablets and desktops together. However, with 50 percent of searches currently being conducted on local search and with mobile search expected to overtake desktop search by 2014, Google too has become pro-active by introducing several features. This includes the Responsive Web Design feature for flexible designing across various screen sizes and easier crawling for Google bots.
SEO techniques too are undergoing swift changes with increasing importance being given to SEO analytics for mobile devices. The specific needs of mobile users are taken into consideration while designing and marketing new apps across various platforms.
Tablet and Mobile search optimization have now become important considerations in enterprise SEO.
Mobile ranking and marketing strategies will certainly constitute an important part of SEO planning in 2013, and new techniques, metrics, and strategies will need to be developed and implemented in the future.