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Friday, April 6, 2012

Mobile Search Engine Behaviors are Different


Just as mobile web users are different, most mobile-specific search engines (such as Google Mobile, Jumptap, Medio, Taptu and our own find.Mobi) are also built in different ways.
Mobile SEO exists on a different plain to desktop SEO. Sure, keywords are critical - search engines will always operate on the stuff that's fed into them - but other, newer dimensions such as location, device types and content formats are more critical to and indicative of the mobile web experience, and search engines are beginning to figuring out how best to harness them.
The table below illustrates some of these differences:
Dimension Mobile Web Desktop Web Mobile Search Engine 
Challenges

Keywords Few characters Many/Descriptive Provision of relevant content
based on sketchy user input
Locations (and Categories) Critical Not so critical Simplified presentation of
results content in relation to a 

user's immediate location / need
Devices/browsers

standardization
Many varied Standardized Presentation of content in an
accessible way and assurance of

 a good user experience, regardless 
of device and browser
Mobile site content

standardization
Poor Generally good Delivering a high quality user
experience from poorly formatted

 raw mobile site source material
Content formats Mobile-specific Generic Using device information to help
improve results by serving relevant 

content formats - eg ringtones for
a Nokia 6300, not an iPhone
This is where life as a mobile SEO gets both complicated and exciting. Complicated, because there's more to think about. Exciting because there are more ways to influence the way that we appeal to search engines.
With the above in mind, here's how search engines are beginning to adapt to life on the mobile web....
 Fewer Keywords
According to Google's research, the average query on Mobile Search is 15 characters long, but takes roughly 30 key presses and approximately 40 seconds to enter. This means that search engines don't have a lot to work with when tasked with providing the user with an experience that roughly equates to the quality of desktop search.
One way in which Google and others are compensating for this lack of keyword action is by providing what's known as 'predictive search' (or 'predictive phrase/query suggestions') in order to help users complete their queries more easily and to help them deliver more relevant search results. You may have already seen this in action: when you key in a search for 'pizza restaurant, San Francisco' on your phone, a little drop down - much like your phone's predictive text writing function - attempts to 'fill out' your search query for you by providing a variety of options such as: 'pizza restaurant', 'pizza take out' and so on. It's a neat way of helping users to conduct a faster search and guaranteeing the provision of relevant results.
But from a technical point of view, this new functionality presents a new SEO opportunity. Just as you might try to identify a set of keyword categories to align yourself with in the desktop web, it's now extremely important to place yourself in the most common 'predictive search phrases' that are related to your business and location.

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