I was on my phone searching for a lunchtime haircut spot, the lady next to me was shopping for new drapes on her iPad, and a Wall Street type was talking loudly on his phone asking for tips prior to laying a bet with his bookie (you have to love Chicago).

Each of us, in our own way, was using our mobile devices to reach out and find answers to our pressing questions. But until a few years ago, the only way we could reach out and answer these questions in a mobile fashion was via email and/or asking someone on the other end, a process that was inefficient at best and frustrating and without closure at worst.

Due to the advances in mobile hardware, software, and user experience, much of this has changed and finally rivals what we love about desktop searching. Screens are big enough to read, keyboards are ergonomic enough to allow for speed, and -- most importantly -- the search engines and marketers have begun to adapt their search offerings to address our mobile needs.

Mobile Market Maturation Means Money in Search Marketing

As of February 2011, there were over 234 million mobile phone users (age 13+) in the U.S., with nearly 50 percent searching on their mobile devices in some capacity during the course of a given month. Mobile searching is especially prevalent among smart phone users, which now accounts for over 30 percent of the total U.S. mobile marketplace.

Considering that 50 percent of all new phones purchased in the U.S. are smartphones, it's clear that mobile searching will not be slowing down anytime soon. Toss in another 10 million or so iPad/Tablet users (and counting) and you begin to see why we are finally reaching the tipping point where marketers must address their mobile paid search strategy as its own concern, and not simply allow the search engines to serve mobile ads by default.

6 Keys to Mobile Search Marketing Success

Mobile CPCs (cost per click) are 30 percent less than those on desktop, but the mobile click-through rate (CTR) is roughly five times higher than that of desktop. This data presents a rather compelling argument on why your paid mobile strategy requires separate targeting.

Below are some of our highlighted points and recommendations for search marketers:

1. The AdWords interface will show you what portion of your clicks and conversions come from mobile vs. desktop, and if 10 percent or more of a campaign come from mobile devices, consider targeting separately.
2. Google allows for targeting by specific devices, operating systems, and carrier (with further tablet targeting options expected later this year), which is important because the end user mobile search experience is different on a mobile phone than it is on an iPad/tablet.
3. Mobile searching lends itself to shorter query lengths and hyper-local results. Google's mobile keyword selection tool offers great assistance for getting started when choosing your ad keywords.
4. The searcher's attention span is limited, so make mobile specific ad copy short and sweet. Include clickable phone numbers and/or geo-targeted maps to enhance your CTRs and conversions.
5. Landing pages from mobile search clicks should reflect your conversion goals. If you want them to call you, download something, watch a video, and/or view a map, optimize these pages accordingly.
6. When launching new campaigns, it's best to start with an aggressive bidding strategy, which will allow you to establish a strong quality score off the bat. Securing position in the top two paid results is imperative with the limited viewing area on mobile devices.

Conclusions

Mobile marketing techniques must keep up with mobile user and technology sophistication.

Desktop search may continue to dominate overall search market share, but mobile search is a new frontier with potentially different searcher intent. Lumping the two in together without taking the time to analyze the differences could lead to costly mistakes, both short and long term.

Although the advent of new mobile devices like the iPad are closing the gap in experience between mobile and desktop searching, the ubiquity of smartphone adoption requires some alternate thinking in order to best capitalize on your mobile strategy.

You're probably tired of hearing that it's the "Year of Mobile," but these numbers and results indicate it may actually be the time to starting thinking differently about this medium.

Make the effort. You won't be disappointed.

• 54% of Americans have substituted the Internet and local search for phone books
• 90% of online commercial searches result in a local offline purchase
• 61% of all local searches will result in a transaction
• Google Local (or Maps) are displayed in 1 out of every 13 searches on average (or roughly 9% of page-one search results)

So how do companies get listed in Google Places results? They can be listed from a number of sources pulled by Google™ places and/or submitted to Google Places manually by you or an SEO consultant. The great part about Google places is you don’t even need to have a website to be listed in the results – but it will certainly help with customer research and conversion if you do. Another point to consider if are currently listed or submit to be listed is HOW you are listed in these results. Google Places allows you to create and/or edit your listing and content - so don’t waste the opportunity to optimize your listing by including your keywords and phrases into your listing results. 

Along with a number of ever changing factors used to determine Google Places (local) results is where your company is listed in relation to the city center (or centroid). The closer your company is listed to the center of the city, the more likelihood you will display prominently in the results. This of course can lead to abuse but it is certainly to your advantage if you have a physical address close to the centroid if you wish to score well on these results.

It is not uncommon to see companies show up prominently in the places results and mistakenly think that because of this; their website is optimized well for the search engines. In most cases, this is simply not the case. As discussed in our section on keyword SEO, just because you might show-up prominently in Google Places for a commonly searched term doesn’t mean you are also showing up in other searches as well. Moreover, around 40% of all searches are unique “long-tail” type searches that are far less in volume but much higher in quality and results. Most long-tail searches are referred to as “money” searches because they tend to be highly focused and come from people who are actually looking for something specific. So don’t be confused by the results provided in Google Places – yes they provide prominence with certain searches but they should not be considered a replacement for a good local search engine optimization strategy.

The Growth of Mobile Browsing

As of 2008, there are around 228 million mobile subscribers in the United States, a 6% growth year over year. What is more startling is the 45% growth over the same period of time in mobile browsing – or people who are searching the web from their mobile phones and PDA’s. A recent study by comScore also shows that 1 in 5 online business searchers with an internet-accessible cell phone have conducted a local search through their phone.  So if you are a local company, you need to ask yourself what the growing use of mobile browsing means for your business.

Many local companies have poor website design SEO and therefore do not show up optimally in mobile web-browsers. If you have a website now, take a moment to look at your website through a cell phone or PDA and see how it looks. Part of an optimal website design process is to understand the desired customer journey through your website. Once this is determined, you can now take that journey yourself through your cell phone or PDA and see how easy or hard this now becomes for your website users. Often times a local search through a PDA may be as simple as people trying to find your phone number, email, and/or physical address through these searches. So when in doubt, a minimal approach is to make sure that these journeys are easily accessible to mobile users and your website is not too choppy and unnavigable in these type of browsers.

Google Places Optimization Strategies

Here are a few ways in which you can improve your local search engine optimization:

• As discussed above in “Understanding Google Places,” it is a good idea to add and/or modify your Google Places listing and make sure that your listing is fully optimized to include your SEO keywords and phrases.
• In order to build more citations for your listings, it is a good idea to claim and optimize ALL of your key directory listings on the web. The best place to start is to go to Get Listed and claim all of your key listings on the web. It is also a good idea to add your listing to Localeze as well.
• Create multiple listings for additional cities and locations where you do business. For example, if you provide services in multiple states and/or cities, it doesn’t hurt to setup mailing addresses (near each city center of course) so your services will be displayed in the maps results for each location.
• Create and/or modify your listing to include your most prominent SEO keywordsin your listing details. You will also need to add an image/s, any videos, promotional items, etc.
• Since customer ratings are one criteria in Google Places results, encourage customers to provide positive reviews for your company in local search results. For example, look at each Google Places results for a business and notice the “More” link to the far-right of their listing. When you click on this link, you will notice a number of tabs below the listing, one of which is the “Reviews” tab. Ask your customers to write a positive review for your business and provide you with the highest rating possible.
• Add a geography section (or geo block) to your web pages that include all of the states, cities, counties and boroughs that you serve. Make sure to also include any additional ways in which people also search for these same areas by name such as DFW (Dallas Fort Worth), NYC (New York City), etc.
• Include your primary geographic area/s of service along with your primary SEO keywords so they come up on a regional basis. For example, you have far less web page competition on the search engines for “Omaha bankruptcy lawyer” than you do by targeting the term “bankruptcy lawyer” alone. Besides, this allows you to geo-target your searches to begin with while trying to avoid traffic from areas you will not serve. It is also important to include these geo keywords into other website design SEO areas of your website as well since many of these sections receive more prominence than others.

Do you want to see your website at the top of Google rankings with a map to your office or store?

Dream System Solutions SEO offers Google Local Optimization which gets your local business listing ranked in the first page of Google search results when a future customers searches online in your area.  Called Google Local or Local Business Center, Google now allows local businesses to compete online within your local city area.  With Google Local Optimization Packages you can get instant online exposure and new business within days.

Have online searchers see a map to your office and phone number when they search online

The key to success is more than just creating a profile.  Dream System Solutions SEO packages uses a complete process to maximize the keywords people are using to search for your business correlated to the keywords your website already features.  You don’t have to have a high ranking website to instantly see your website and business at the top of Google Local results.

Google Local Optimization Features:

1. Ranking for Best Keywords in Your Local Area
2. Boost Your Current Business Listing with More Traffic
3. Map to Your Office or Store Online
4. Phone Number Available without Clicking into Website
5. Drives Local Online Traffic to Your Website
6. Increase Your Brand with Videos, Photos, and More
7. Maximize Reviews of your Business

Rank at the Top of Google without even having a Website

With Google Local Optimization you don’t even need to have a website for your business to have online customers find your company and give you a call.  Google Local Optimization creates the most productive online profile that will allow your company to be seen online for the most competitive terms for your industry when a person searchers in your area.

How Does Google Know Where a Person is Located

When you log on to the web you create what is called at IP address.  This is like your address to your house only it is your online house.  Through you IP address, Google is able to know where you are located.

Google Local has multiple features that allow you business to have maximum exposure online and Authority SEO knows how to utilize each one for the greatest return on investment.

The best part of Google Local Optimization is that it is one of the best uses of your marketing budget you will ever spend.  If you have heard that SEO can take a long time to see results that is not the case with Google Local Optimization.  You will see your local business listing and map featured within days.