Like it or not, today 80 percent of us don’t leave home without a smartphone or tablet by our sides, and mobile has a direct relationship with how consumers relate and engage with their local community but more specifically with those businesses in their immediate area. More and more small business owners find themselves struggling with the decision of where to invest their limited marketing budget. More often choosing between expensive offline mediums like television or trusting the internet to deliver foot traffic.
Now more than ever the harnessing the power of local search is critical, but understanding and optimizing for mobile search is necessary.
According to an consumer tracking study conducted by BIA/Kelsey, 97 percent of consumers search for local businesses online before making a decision of where to shop. More importantly, almost 70 percent of searches are mobile based and affected by geolocation.
So it is in the best interest of any small business owner to include both local search and mobile optimization tactics to maximize potential traffic online and on foot. For mom and pop shops that are interested in getting results sooner than later, there are three specific tactics that can be implemented almost immediately.
Create A Google+ Profile and Connect With Places for Businesses
Most small business owners are too overwhelmed and overworked to spend a tremendous amount of time developing their websites to align with the latest search trends. However, there is absolutely no excuse when it comes to not connecting with Google’s ever-growing Google+ world.
Since its launch in 2011, over 540 million consumers have connected with Google+ so it makes complete sense to spend thirty minutes creating a business profile that has the potential to drive immediate traffic and increase sales.
Owners that utilize Places for Businesses are able to offer and display important points of information directly in organic search listings that allow both online and mobile consumers to understand the business’s hours of operation, a physical address as well as consumer reviews and testimonials.
This information acts as catalysts for increasing both foot and website traffic, as consumers are able to make an immediate informed decision based on their current location and social proof.
Add a Business Listing or Creating a Profile to Social Media Sites
Connecting with sites like FourSquare, Yelp and setting up business listings on local directory sites like Cascade Business News Classifieds are critical for getting small businesses in front of people who are out and about and looking to find a great restaurant or pick up flowers from a neighborhood boutique on the way home from work.
The truth is consumers are going to most likely choose a place to do business with based on whatever search results that are dictated to them by search engines like Google.
So if the owner of Sam’s Pizza is not interested in or is too busy to set up these profiles, their competitors will and they will take business away for as long as their category space is unmatched.
Ready, Set, Go Mobile
As smartphones and data plans have become increasingly affordable, mobile use has grown some 44 percent year over year since 2011. It’s projected that mobile use will grow to as much as 1.75 billion smartphone users by the end of 2015. Is your website mobile ready?
Currently, best practices dictate that businesses should incorporate responsive web design as opposed to creating and maintaining a separate mobile website. Not only does the internet’s largest search engine recommend this, and reward those who have incorporated responsive design with higher organic search results, but managing a responsive design mobile site can be much easier for the neophyte.
However, more recent developments in technology allows for a mobile website to emulate its corresponding desktop version relieving business owners of having to manage two separate websites and thus, two separate SEO campaigns.
While responsive scripting may connect the desktop version of a site with a mobile device or tablet, not all website platforms (or hosting providers) are truly ‘responsive.’ It’s easier now for service providers to fall behind in trying to keep up with the ever changing mobile device landscape with so many new device types and operating systems and updates out there.
Where responsive scripts have been installed, most desktop websites are not optimized for the mobile consumer’s experience and this puts owners at a huge disadvantage over those businesses with fully hosted and optimized mobile sites.
Even still, close to 70 percent of small businesses in the U.S. lack a mobile friendly version or mobile responsive desktop version of their company’s website. Even more shocking is when you consider that, according to Search Engine Watch, 61 percent of mobile users are likely to leave a website that is NOT mobile friendly. And that 48 percent of mobile users who visit a site that is NOT mobile-friendly assume the company does not care about their business.
Small business owners need to adopt a user-friendly mobile experience in their ongoing search marketing and web development campaign strategies, but also need be sure to optimize for mobile-local search performance if they are truly interested in connecting and maximizing consumer opportunities.
Mike Johnson is the director of Search, Mobile Web & Social Media at RELIVANT, LLC., in Bend who oversees the planning and execution of custom mobile, search and social media strategies for medium sized businesses and both regional and national media/advertising firms. He is a recognized speaker, trainer and coach for Search, Mobile Web and Social SEO with close to 15 years extensive hands-on search marketing experience.
To schedule a free mobile web consult, contact Mike at 877-444-0562, relivant@gmail.com or www.relivant.com
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