March 20th, 2010 by Nick

The mobile internet has once and or all proven that a satisfying online experience can be condensed into a palm held device; this relatively recent phenomenon of efficient mobile internet as begun to revolutionize exactly what it means to be online – not only in terms of its use but in terms of its reach. As the mobile internet is represents a relatively new frontier, however, its fair to say that its potential for SEO and SMM are not yet full understood – nevertheless, not only are the oppourtunities there, they are potentially massive.

The immediate difference between the mobile environment and the traditional internet is that its search functionality isn’t so dominated by Google and in a way mobile internet is more egalitarian. In regards to SEO this unfortunately throws up a crucial problem; namely, in order to maximize you online visibility and therefore facilitate optimum SEO, you will need to register with as many mobile search engines as possible; remember the way in which mobile search engines choose their prominent page rankings is no where near as sophisticated as how Google choose theirs, which means that getting noticed will usually involve registration.

The next problem is again an issue of diversity, and not only will you page be refracted through the prism of many search engines, but you’ll have to ensure that your content is viewable on as many devices, and under as many operating systems and browsers as possible. This can either involve a hefty amount of research, or it can simply be through clever use of content; i.e. just as for traditional SEO written content is most likely to be preferred by search engines and browsers alike.

Once your mobile site has achieved maximum visibility you can begin the business of optimization. Broadly speaking, search engine optimization for a mobile site will have a similar DNA to “traditional” SEO, however, there are definitely some differences.
Firstly, just like with “traditional” SEO you should aim for relevant and high-quality content, as search engines will always endeavour to disregard what it considers to be “spammy.”

Don’t Forget Google!

So far the focus has been on mobile SEO outside of Google and many of you would consider this unwise. Perhaps it is inevitable that Google will achieve clear dominance of the mobile search capability, and it’s probably already happening now. So, what exactly do Google themselves suggest to optimize a mobile page for their search engine?

Well Google suggest, for example, that when creating a mobile sitemap you could have a single url for your desktop, iphone or mobile browser; you could then, they suggest, use the “user agent string” “googlebot” and “googlebot-mobile” to show a different stylesheet for the same content in mobile and desktop layouts.