In the past, hyperlocal search referred to getting local information on demand from your PC. You searched from your desk or laptop and local results for news and deals came up.
These days hyperlocal search has gone one-step further. You can get that information from anywhere with your mobile phone. And this way of getting information and shopping is hotter than ever.
Here are some stats to prove that:
- Sixty percent of customers review a product on a mobile before buying.
- 51% of smart phone users buy when there is a mobile site, but less than five percent of brands actually have one
- Seventy-seven percent of smart phone users visit social sites and search engines.
- More than 90% of mobile searches end in an action like purchasing or visiting a business.
- Twenty-five percent of searches in the world are mobile.
There’s no denying it…getting your website mobile-ready and geared to deliver local results is as important as ever.
Of course, this means you will have to do things like build a mobile site, optimize it for mobile search, create a mobile-only AdWords campaign, engage the click-to-call function and create a mobile-specific keyword list.
That might sound like a tall order, but this guide will show you step-by-step what you need to do…and you’ll see it’s not really that hard.
So, let’s get stared:
Build the mobile site
Here’s another stat for you from a Compuware study: More than 50% of mobile customers will not recommend a brand if their mobile site is bad. Furthermore, in spite of brand loyalty, more than 40% would actual go to a competitor who has a better mobile site.
That’s huge. Â
So, your first step is to get your site mobile ready. To get started, let’s check out what your website looks like on a mobile device at Google’s initiative GoMo:
Answer 6 questions and then you’ll get a report on your site’s mobile friendliness:
Click on read full report and you can get a Google Doc of a detailed report for your site:
Naturally, you’ll want to develop sites that can be used across devices. Keep in mind that search engines rank a page based on some common criteria—screen rendering, site performance, usability and page download speed.
Here is a site that Jakob Neilson uses as an example that gets all of these criteria right:
Creating a mobile site sounds like a lot of work, though, right? Would you believe me if I told you it’s really not?
In fact, you can create a mobile site with this free tool:
Or if you use WordPress, you can use the WP-Touch plugin. Of course if you have more robust needs, you’ll need to hire a developer.
Use traditional SEO practices
Once you’ve created your mobile-friendly site, your next step is to optimize that site. You can use conventional best practices, focusing on these strategies:
- Keywords in headlines and copy – Like their PC counterparts, mobile search engines use keywords to deliver relevant search queries. But unlike the PC users, mobile users use shorter keywords. Typing on a mobile phone is just too hard. Below I’ll discuss how to create a keyword campaign focused on mobile users.
- Page titles – Try to match search queries to titles since this is one of the main factors that users use to evaluate whether they will click through. The closer you can match the higher in position you will be…and the more likely you’ll get the click.
- Page descriptions – You’ve got to nail your meta descriptions to compel a mobile user to click through. Make sure they are short, keyword rich, and enticing.
- Links – Mobile users don’t mind clicking…it’s just that your links need to be clickable. Mobile users like the experience of finding and exploring, so provide value whether you are linking in your site or out of your site.
Like I said, these are pretty standard, and if you create a mobile site using the WP plugin, for example, you won’t do a optimization for the PC and then the mobile site—it will all start from the PC side. So keep mobile users in mind when you create content. Check out these 9 content strategies to help you.
Create separate mobile AdWords campaigns
Google’s research shows that advertisers who use mobile-specific campaigns get an 11.5% increase in mobile CTR, with a 29% rise in the number of mobile clicks.
With a mobile-specific campaign you can:
- Optimize campaign for mobile specific keywords – You can damage your PC campaign if you try to add mobile-specific keywords. A separate campaign will allow you to choose words that work best on a mobile device.
- Customize ad text to mobile-specific CTAs – By creating text in your ad that appeals to mobile users you’ll increase conversion. The essence behind this idea is to make requesting by phone front and center.
- Adjust bids – A mobile-only campaign allows you to set your bids and budget to help you achieve the top spot.
It’s pretty easy to set up a mobile-specific AdWords campaign. You can use either AdWords Editor Tool or do it from your AdWords account. Let’s look at the AdWords Editor Tool first.
Log into Editor Tool, and then click “New campaign”:
Then choose a mobile device:
Next, choose the campaign you want to copy and then add to the new campaign. After that you can adjust your ad bids and budget.
Tip: Since fewer ads are shown on mobile, you can be more aggressive with your bids.
You can also create a mobile-specific campaign in your Google AdWords account if you are not using the AdWords Editor Tool.
Login and click on the “New Campaign” in your account and choose which device you want to create a campaign for (mobile or tablet):
Now you are ready to copy over your existing campaign into your new mobile-specific campaign. Your next step is to create a mobile-friendly keyword list.
Create a mobile-friendly keyword list
Mobile users engage search differently. They use technology like Voice Search or Google Goggles. That means they don’t always use their mobile browser.
Another significant difference with mobile users is how they use keywords. Their behavior is different than PC users. For example:
- Use short keywords – Typing on a mobile device is hard, so users take shortcuts. One-word search queries are the most used: “coffee,” “boots” or “movies.” They are hoping the local tools of search kick-in at this point to deliver the most relevant listings for these queries.
- Obsessed with top 3 positions - According to Google’s book, users care more about those spots since the real estate on a mobile device is limited. How important are those positions? Just a drop from top to second position can lead to a 90% plunge.
- Hate scrolling – Mobile users want to see everything within their window. So it’s best that your keywords are matched to their requests so you can land in the top spots.
To get started, you can use the Google Keyword Tool, but you’ll have to search with the “Advanced Options and Filters” in order to get mobile-specific suggestions.
Significant keyword volume is critical to a successful mobile campaign. Ignore keywords without a high volume.
Add phone numbers to your mobile campaigns
Customers who are on a mobile device are primed to call your business. Make it easy for them to do by adding your phone number to your AdWords campaigns.
Advertisers who use this feature experience a 6-8% rise in CTR, and doesn’t cost any different than if you got a click to your website.
So how do you set this up? Follow these steps:
- Log into AdWords.
- Choose the right campaign…inside AdWords, select the campaign you’d like to add a phone number to. Note, if you want ads shown on high-end mobile phones, click “Mobile devices with full Internet browsers.” You can find this under “Devices” in the campaign’s “Setting” tab.
- Click the Ad extensions tab…to get the right view, click “Call Extensions.” You’ll have to enable this tab if you can’t see it.
- Choose “New Extension.”
- Add your phone number and country.
- Hit “Save and continue.”
And to enhance performance, you can also see the number of calls received per campaign, ad group or keyword.
Tip: You can make your phone number and not your headline clickable when it shows up on a mobile device. Just select “Allow only click-to-calls.”
Conclusion
Basically in few steps you can have a highly-optimized mobile site that delivers relevant search listings in your local market and actually converts. This is a superb strategy for anyone who is in a business with a local customer base.
That means coffee shops, record stores, car dealers, florists. And you don’t necessarily need a brick-and-mortar location. You could be a real estate agent or plumber who works from home. Just make sure you define your market/region/city precisely so the right people call you.
Have you had any success with a mobile-specific campaign in your local market?
This amazing course will teach you, step by step, how to double if not triple your traffic over the next 30 days.
I haven’t made my sites or client sites mobile because most users are from android, iphone, and blackberry and those do a good job of loading up the site on its own and they load fast because these sites are not heavy with links and content that would slow it down.
I do think it’s good for someone searching on the phone to find an address or number, but google+ places gives that information right in the results since it is a local search anyways.
It wouldn’t hurt to try though, I’m going to use that link in the article especially since I don’t use WordPress and can’t just use a plugin.
-Amir
Hey Amir,
Typically when you find something that works for you, you want to stick to it. However you like you said, it doesn’t hurt to try something new every once and a while. Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you.
With the rate at which mobile viewers are increasing, website owners need to make sure that their sites are visible on mobile searches. It is simply an aspect that most people cannot afford to overlook anymore.
Yep, it is important to stay current.
Well written Neil! Setting aside the issue of whether a given site is better served with a mobile-specific site or a responsive design, this post does a fantastic job of outlining why there needs to be mobile optimization.
Sadly, there are still lots of people who don’t see understand the need for mobile optimization. This post should do well to help some of them see the light of day.
Thank you David, glad you liked it.
@David I think it’s just the opposite. Being mobile-friendly and being optimized for mobile are two completely different things, with completely different costs.
My challenge as with many of my clients is the time and cost involved in creating a made-for-tablet version of a website, as not everyone will download an app.
You make a good point steven, thanks for brining it up.
Totally agree with Steve.
A website, made mobile friendly via any method, let’s say responsive design will still need to be mobile optimized!
Making your website mobile optimized is to think of a complete new design that will engage mobile users more.
Take an example of blogger, they set a meta view port for mobile users and have a new design for them. Blogger thinks that users with mobile devices will have a good experience with a website specially designed for mobile.
However, as told by Neil, local searches helps your business stand out of the crowd nowadays.
Enough said, I have to tell all my clients who have a local business, about this blog post.
- Darshan
Thanks for sharing this post Darshan, I hope it is helpful to you and those you share it with.
Hi Neil,
Nice post regarding Mobile web presence and how the importance of optimizing will gain you good ROI for your business.
This days Local Search has become more important so its necessary to make a mobile site. Thanks for guiding us.
Cheers !!!
No problem, glad you see the importance of all of this.
An eye opener post.. Thanks Neil.
And your site looks sleek in its mobile theme.
But how do you avoid duplicate content issues when you have a mobile as well a desktop version of everything?
This was something I was wondering about as well. I was thinking maybe you can block the mobile site from getting indexed and when it is detected the browser is mobile, it redirects to m.examplesite.com or whatever URL your mobile site is. I could be wrong but I don’t see why you would need a mobile site to be indexed.
-Amir
Nice post. I use WP Touch and like it, despite some limitations.
Thank you,
I appreciate you sharing what you like to use.
definitely mobile search is going up due to advancement in mobile phone technology. People prefer to search a lot on their touch phones as they are always carrying their mobiles. Mobile search will only go up from here.
Yes, I believe so.
Nice Post Neil, I am on blogger and google automatically handles Mobile Sites too..
Thanks Anvesh,
Keep up the hard work.
Right after going through the post I started making my mobile website through the beautiful tool you suggested.Thank You so much.
No problem, happy to help.
Nice post about the importance of having a mobile theme. I use the free Carrington Mobile WordPress Theme that automatically displays when the request is from a mobile phone. It is all automatic no muss no fuss. And it is free.
Sounds good, thanks for sharing with everyone what works best for you.
I was ignoring the mobile version of my website. Now you have given a wake up call. Thanks.
Cool, I hope you give a try and see if it works for you.
Great blog post, it’s very important to have a mobile version of your website these days with the huge growth in smart phones.
Definitely, it is important to keep up to date with the technology.
Hi Neil.
Can you tell us how your able to make your side bar banner (Michael Arrington ) follow you as you scroll down?
I think thats a awesome technique.
thanks
Yaa this is really awesome and something which we want us to see my all our readers. Can we do the same for adsense units also?
I am not sure, you would have to read adsense terms of use.
Hey Edgar,
It was custom built.
I can’t find the place with the 90% stat about mobile use, please help.
There is a link in the post above, if you search through it you should find it.
Good post I had a mobile site but it looked shocking, my website is ok for the I phone but I think I am gonna try this go no app, thanks
Sounds good, you should always do what is best for you and your site.
Very effective points you have introduce to us especially I Like (add phone numbers to your mobile campaigns) point, now I’m going to update my site. Thanks
Great, let me now how it goes.
These days hyperlocal search has gone one-step further. You can get that information from anywhere with your mobile phone. And this way of getting information and shopping is hotter than ever.
Yep, I agree.
I completely agree with the mobile site aspect. It helps a lot. Some company are missing out on this big time….
Sheyi
Thanks Sheyi,
Some companies probably are, hopefully they will catch on.
So mobile marketing is the next big thing, wow. However not for every demographic.
Yep, you have got it.
Great article Neil. Once you’ve got your web & mobile sites you’ll need something like HandsetDetection.com to shuffle mobile visitors across to your mobile site. (Disclaimer : I work there).
Cheers
Richard
Thanks for the suggestion Richard.
One of the biggest items I stressed when developing a site for my friends’ salon business was that it needed to be optimized for mobile – I’m glad they went with my suggestion because we’re seeing a TON of mobile traffic especially coupled through Groupon promotions.
We haven’t rolled out an AdWords campaign as of yet but thanks for reminding me to keep it separate from desktop.
Happy to have helped Murray, if you ever have any questions feel free to ask.
Thanks for the piece of information, Neil! Indeed, with the explosive growth of the internet and smart phones, i am not surprise to see these stats. Look around us, there are people on the train, sitting in restaurants all holding their mobiles and surfing the net to buy things or read for information. I believe that the growth would continue with more people getting access to the internet in the developing countries.
No problem Jesslyn, thanks for reading!
I agree completely.
I just had my site upgraded from an online catalogue to an e-store. I guess i need to start planning the next upgrade.
Definitely, it is important to keep updated and current at all times.
Hi Neil! Great tips and learned few new techniques from the post. Thanks for sharing great information.
Awesome, happy to hear it.
Hi Neil,
This is a great post as usual there is so much information to learn. I hope to implement this also.
Thanks
Thank you David,
Let me know if you have any questions as you go.
Is there any specific tool which helps in designing a website for mobile phones?
I wish I could help, but I don’t know.
Amaze Article Neil…
Super helpful.. We have just launched our website and were trying to get our mobile store.
Really helpful tips at right time for us..
Thanks Again..
Thanks Samay,
Glad to hear this information has been helpful to you.
Just as I get to grips with building websites for computers and laptops the goal posts get moved hahah. typical. Im with mr software testing… Whats the best way to make a website mobile phone friendly?
There is no real one way, it varies depending on your wedsite.
I actually have one of the few sites that won’t benefit much from having a mobile version of my site. my users require the ability to listen to samples of my work in an environment where they can listen critically to the audio…not on tiny cell phone speakers. In addition, the service i provide requires planning on the part of the client. not something that can be done “on the fly” on your mobile phone.
Stick with what works best for you and your business. Just don’t be afraid to try something new or you might miss out big time.
my website is an online retailer for ladders and access equipment. Just a static html site for now…. Ill be looking to upgrade the site over the next year anyhow so i may as well just wait til then. Although its very intresting to see the amount we use our phones nowadays.
Sounds good, keep up the hard work.
yes the interenet worlkd is being taken by storm from the mobile industry now! you made some great points which has convinced me to add this to my website!! i’ll check back and let you know how it goes:)
Great, definitely let me know how it goes.
Many company and website are still missing mobile compatibility of site with aspecto to GUI and SEO. But I think soon all will take this as a priority
Definitely, sooner or later they will see the value of it.
Mobile is dominating the world hence we need to build an sites which should be suitable to make friendly of the users
Yep, exactly.
oo it really works. by this method i have increased traffic on my site. because most of my targeted public uses mobile phones to access the internet. thanx for sharing this
Awesome, that is great. Glad to hear it.
I agree that the future of Internet is in mobile traffic. Thanks for sharing this article Neil.
Thanks Selena, glad you agree.
Wow I can’t believe that “Sixty percent of customers review a product on a mobile before buying.” That’s a pretty ridiculous stat!
Yep, people are on their phones constantly.
Hi Neil, Gr8 post as usual.
Thanks for sharing the mobile site stats. That’s cool.
I want to ask a question, Which types of businesses will get the Most Benefits of this Mobile site ? Service providers or Products suppliers ?
and what about Small Business owners ? Should they opt for this option ?
Any type of business can, from local sites to ecomerce sites.
Hello!
Hi!,,,,Good post I had a mobile site but it looked shocking, my website is ok for the I phone but I think I am gonna try this go no app, thanks for this post!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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