Feb 7, 2011

Google Mobile Search and Google Search

Google mobile search and Google search are two different animals and understanding more about both has become a necessary evil.

Currently, the results returned when doing a search on a mobile device can vary greatly from those done on a desktop. The biggest difference being that Google figures if you’re on a mobile it’s likely your intent is more local focused – plus it’s easier to know exactly where the search is being conducted.The other issue is that people turning to the mobile browser tend to search on that device a little differently, think more abbreviated, than they do on the desktop and that’s something we all need to understand a little better.

The Google Keyword Tool is a tool that every marketer must have in the toolbox as a quick way to understand some data on the kinds of things people are actually searching for – or at least the actual words and phrases they use most when looking for what you offer.You access mobile data through the "Advanced options" linkThe tool recently received a nice little update with the addition of mobile search data.

Using this tool is the first step to understanding the keyword differences inherent in mobile search. The reason I think this is such an important topic is that at some point mobile search will be the dominant form of search – it’s already there for some industries. It’s time to start thinking about blending some of your keyword strategies to make them more mobile centric – and of course getting serious about local optimization. If you sell something that is mobile related or found primarily via a phone you’ll get far better keyword ideas. You can now have a much fuller picture of the search volume for phrases – mobile is doubling and tripling volume estimates

This is a pretty significant piece in the local search optimization game.