Differences in Mobile and Desktop Search Results

It’s a little known fact that Google mobile search results (whether tablet, feature phone or smartphone) can be different results from those on Google from a desktop computer. SEO practitioners therefore need to take note, as at present, there are at least 16 known differences between smartphone results and desktop ones.

Many of these differences don’t affect core web search results and many users just aren’t going to notice or care that smartphone search results are slightly different than desktop ones. But, for those interested in the targeting of SEO, it’s not possible to ignore these if the aim is to get the maximum amount of traffic from the rapidly expanding source of mobile search.

One of the most interesting differences is that local results are more likely to appear, and higher up, in mobile results. So this makes Google+ Local optimisation essential if you have a local business, especially one with multiple outlets.

Another notable difference is that the clickthrough and bounce rates are more likely to vary in mobile listings. According to Google, this is because mobile users scroll more than desktop users, but there’s still a 90% drop off in CTR in mobile search results after position 4. So it’s very important to have a higher ranking within the mobile search results to attract a good volume of traffic.

More of these differences can be examined here, but the main point to consider is that mobile SEO is going to become increasingly important. So it’s necessary to be aware that these differences between mobile search and desktop search results exist, in order to ensure that a business’s SEO is performing at its peak on all targeted devices.

If you’d like to how the Web Marketing Workshop can improve the SEO of your business on all devices in the future, contact us for more information.

According to recent forecasts, the first time that the number of global users who access the Internet via a mobile rather than a PC will be in 2014. The comparable numbers are currently 900 million from the former device and 1.4 billion from the latter. Assuming that if the annual growth rate in mobile phone subscriptions is about 2% between 2010 and 2015, then there will be approximately 6.35 billion of those within the next 3 years. Of those, a third will use that device to access the web.

The 2011 edition of eMarketer states that of those, 33% are looking for local content relevant to their current GPS position. Now, the young generation that has never known life without the Internet are increasingly using their mobiles like the older generations used Yellow Pages to find local information. So if you’re targeting young people in a localised market, it’s essential to have a mobile compatible site.

You can read some more data measuring the global smartphone impact here.

Is Your Site Mobile-Friendly?

There are a number of websites and online tools that can be used to check how your website performs on a mobile – if you don’t have a smartphone to do this in the first place! A very useful initiative by Google is the GoMo site that aims to change the way the web works on mobile devices. This project is primarily for mobile phones but could be aimed at all forms of mobile devices, like iPads and other tablets.

GoMo helps you build a site for all of these mobile platforms and it provides case studies and statistics to support why you should go mobile. By offering a comprehensive resource for websites who may not have gone mobile yet, webmasters can learn why they should go mobile, the best practices for mobile and how to get the process started. Webmasters can even test their sites from GoMo to see how mobile they really are to visitors.

There are more useful mobile website emulators that allow you to check if your website is mobile-friendly.

The accuracy of some of these tools have been questioned however, as some sites that receive low scores still look fine on mobiles. The problem is the wide variety of makes and models of smartphones, on a variety of different platforms. So although testing tools may be a useful resource, it’s worth also getting feedback from users of mobile devices about what they are actually seeing.

A recent study found that 61% of mobile users are not likely to return to a site that does not provide a good mobile experience. In response, Google initiated a shift in their policy that will reward mobile sites with good optimisation and they have offered a few priorities to get your site optimised for mobile usage:

• Keep the layout and design simple
• Prioritise your content
• Use markedly mobile features
• Make your site easy to convert

This may sound easy, but as mobile usage increases and web developers offer mobile design options, the implementation and testing of good mobile websites will become a more common process.

Using Mobile Marketing Features in Google Ads (AdWords)

Due to the unprecedented growth in the use of mobile devices to access the Internet, Google recently announced some new mobile targeting functionality for AdWords. This enhanced feature allows advertisers to target to specific versions of mobile operating systems, to ensure the ads are going to the right users.

It’s now also possible to target according to the whether a faster Wi-Fi connection is being used as well as by mobile carriers. Google says targeting by Wi-Fi will let advertisers expand their reach, and will be particularly useful if the campaign or landing page features high-bandwidth content like video.

The mobile specific ads have had the ability to include ‘click to call’ phone numbers below them for a couple of years now as an Ad Extension for adverts appearing on mobiles. In addition, the segmentation reports in AdWords now show mobile interaction down to keyword level, which is a great feature to develop these type of campaigns. If you’re using an iPhone, Android, or other smartphone, you just click the number to call the business and if it’s a local store or restaurant with multiple locations, the integration with Google Places listing will allow you to call the nearest one.

In addition to this, Google also included more specific click-to-call advert extensions, which enables the ability to use bid-per-call (currently only in the US and UK) and view data on mobile calls.

The importance of these enhancements will rise rapidly in the near future, so it’s essential to create a separate, mobile-targeted AdWords campaign now to gain a significant competitive advantage. Not only will this give your business a better reach, but also a lower cost-per-click and higher click-through-rate in this early period, while the adoption of the technology isn’t too widespread.

Tracking Mobile Use in Google Analytics

In November 2011, Google announced the launch of enhanced Analytics reports that include mobile ad performance metrics. All AdWords metrics available in Google Analytics can now be segmented by the new mobile and tablet dimensions in the form of: “All”, “High-end Mobile” and “Tablet” ads.

This again highlights the growing importance of these devices and the increasing significance placed upon them by Google, as the shift towards mobile makes an adoption of an updated marketing strategy necessary. It’s highly recommended that you view your Analytics data over the past year to see this increase in mobile activity. You can segment your data just by mobile usage which makes it easier to identify any potential issues your site may be having when viewed from these devices, as well as the increasing potential number of visits and conversions from them.

So this new access to the mobile device data will help businesses get a better understanding of how mobile advertising will interact with them in the future and how the specific targeting of them can be very effective.

As we predicted in last month’s newsletter, mobile marketing is likely to become a significant issue for many business websites this year – so is your strategy in place? If you’d like to know more about how mobile marketing could impact your website, and how to get the most from Google Ads (AdWords) and Analytics for mobiles, please contact us now for more information.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in the UK publishes annual figures on Internet advertising spend and trends in the online market. Gone are the days when these summaries were published quarterly, due to cutbacks, but the annual figures continue to provide an insight into how this sector continues to grow whereas most other forms of marketing spend decline or stagnate. The last figures, for 2010, show that UK online advertising spent just over £4bn in the year, which was also an impressive 12.8% growth on a like-for-like basis.

The IAB compiles these figures with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and values the total UK advertising spend in 2010 at £16.6 billion, which shows that the Internet’s market share has reached a record high of 25% (up from 23% in 2009). This also means that £1 in every £4 invested by advertisers is now spent online.

The IAB says that these findings demonstrate that, despite the recession, online advertising continues to perform well and shows healthy growth. Marketers are increasingly using online channels to drive their brand building campaigns, with consumer goods and retail advertisers increasing their investment in online to become two of the top four big spenders in display advertising. This is to capitalise on the medium’s core strengths of reach and engagement as well as accountability.

In 2010 the biggest gain in spend came from display advertising, thanks to a nearly 200% surge in display advertising in a social media environment (on a like-for-like basis) and 91% year-on-year (absolute growth) in video formats. Overall display grew by more than a quarter (27.5%) on a like-for-like basis to a new high of £945.1 million, representing 23% of total online spend (up from 20% in 2009).

Paid-search continues to perform strongly with growth of 8% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis to £2,346 million, representing 57% of total online spend (61% in 2009).

Despite pressure on the housing, recruitment and automotive markets, online classified advertising bounced back in 2010 recording 9.7% growth on a like-for-like basis to £751 million – a share of 18% (19% in 2009).

Mobile advertising has experienced a staggering 116% year on year growth (on a like for like basis), up from 32% in 2009. Advertisers spent £83 million on mobile advertising in 2010, led by the entertainment and media sector, but with encouraging growth from finance, telecoms and consumer goods advertising.

The IAB tracks many drivers of market growth, such as more people being online – according to data from the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM) and Nielsen, by December 2010 the UK’s active online user base had grown to 40.3 million. Also the penetration of broadband access in internet homes is now 98% (source: Kantar Media’s Internet Monitor, December 2010) and 47% of at home UK internet users access the internet with a connection speed of between 2Mb and 8Mb, with 14% accessing online with a connection speed of over 8Mb. (source: UKOM APS/Netview December 2010). In addition to this, social networks now account for 25% of the time spent online in the UK, which is reflected in the growth of display advertising spend as brands are able to tap into the social nature of the web.

If you’d like more information about these figures and the implications for your online advertising plans, please contact us for details.

At the end of January, Google announced the introduction of ‘click-to-call’ phone numbers as part of the AdWords campaign options, allowing advertisers to target users of Internet smartphones (such as a iPhone). This allows potential customers to phone the advertiser directly from the advert and for the number of calls to be recorded within the AdWords system.

After having been in beta for some time, Google is now rolling out the click-to-call facility to AdWords campaigns in the UK and worldwide. As our article in last month’s newsletter noted, Google has recently been developing better options for AdWords advertisers to target Internet-capable mobile phone users, and the new click-to-call option recognises the fact that many mobile searchers would prefer to call from the advert, rather than visit the website to find the number.

To help better connect searchers with the right business, click-to-call ads and their corresponding phone numbers are based on users’ locations based on the Google Maps ‘My Location’ feature. AdWords advertisers can add a location-specific business phone number in the mobile ads, so that users can click the number to call the business immediately. Ads can be served based on user location, so that for companies with multiple locations or stores, a potential customer will see – and can click to call – the phone number of their nearest location.

This new feature also makes it easier for advertisers to fully measure the results of their ads by allowing them to track how many calls they actually receive within the AdWords interface. Google says that the beta trial demonstrated that some of those advertisers who participated “saw the overall success of the ads increase dramatically and the click-through rates on search ads increased up to 30%”. The advertisers’ bid levels remain unchanged with this option so that the same cost-per-click (CPC) applies to both calls and clicks to the website, however with the more limited screen space for mobile search and adverts, it will benefit those advertisers who rank in the first 1-5 positions for a search term on AdWords.

Paid-search ads will become an increasingly important tool as companies attempt to gain space on the mobile screen. Mobile search traffic continues to climb, and more people have begun to use smartphones that allow them to browse the web easily from any location. Internal data from Google suggests that consumers with iPhones search 50 times more than those with prior-generation phones.

Click-to-call ads underscore Google’s continued dedication to making money from the mobile web and it’s likely that Google will offer additional ways to leverage mobile ads, such as through GPS and other location-based mechanisms, in the future.

If you’d like more information about how click-to-call phone numbers can help the marketing of your business, please contact us now.

Google is rapidly expanding its interest in the mobile phone market, which is expected to see massive growth over the next few years. This has been demonstrated by three recent developments: the launch of its new mobile phone; the intended acquisition of AdMob (a mobile advertising network); and the way in which it has added extra options for Adwords advertisers to target mobile phone users.

On 7th January 2010, Google unveiled its new mobile smartphone, the HTC Nexus One, which is designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone. This is Google’s first own-brand smartphone, although it has previously been providing the Google Android operating system through other phones. The phone is initially available in the US and is being sold directly from Google’s website. It can be purchased ‘unlocked’ so that any chosen mobile carrier can be used, but clearly Google wants to gain a bigger share of the mobile phone market to capture more mobile search activity and to provide another advertising platform as a revenue stream in this growing market.

In another recent move, Google acquired the mobile advertising start-up AdMob Inc. last November for US$750 million. The purchase is one of Google’s largest deals and underscores how the search giant is trying to get more creative to extend its dominance in Internet advertising to mobile phones. AdMob is one of the leading mobile display advertising companies and comes with an experienced team and over 15,000 mobile websites and applications.

Although Google has been selling ads next to search results on mobile phones and on some mobile web pages for years, their efforts haven’t generated much revenue. However, AdMob ‘ which was founded in 2006 – places ads on mobile sites that match advertisers’ chosen criteria and in some cases provides a system for large advertisers to design the adverts themselves. The change to Google’s mobile advertising strategy through this acquisition shows that Google is serious about becoming a major player in the mobile advertising business, as it has now put itself amongst the front-runners in this market.

Finally, at the end of January, Google announced new targeting options for mobile phone advertising through Google Ads (AdWords). This will enable advertisers with a carrier- or device-specific message to reach targeted users. For example, companies selling iPhone cases can use device targeting to ensure that users with Android phones won’t see their ads. Also, Google are making sure that ads linking to mobile application downloads will automatically appear only on devices that offer those apps which will improve the targeting and relevancy for advertisers.

To find out more about Google’s mobile advertising developments, please contact us now to see what opportunities are available for your business.

These were our 5 predictions for 2008 that were made in January last year, together with a review of what actually happened:

1) ‘Universal search’ becomes a significant optimisation issue: the inclusion of all forms of search results ‘ such as images, videos, news or maps ‘ within the main search engine listings has become more prevalent over the year, particularly on Google. This has created many opportunities for companies to achieve visibility within the search results in new and more creative ways. Local business listings have been the most effective method for many companies who target a localised area, so much so that Google has had to control some of the more extreme methods by companies trying to get listings within these results. Video sites like YouTube continue to attract huge traffic volumes and videos do appear within Google’s search results, when applicable. Google has also introduced new formats for PPC adverts although these remain limited to the content network and have yet to be offered within the main search listings.

2) Personalisation gains ground: the impact of personalisation has yet to be understood as no figures have been released by Google, or other websites that offer this option, to show what the levels of uptake have been. However, at the end of 2008 Google introduced the Search Wikia option for logged in users, so that search results could be adapted to suit user preferences and notes could also be added to listings. There were also hints from Google that this data may also be eventually used to determine search engine rankings which is likely to attract abuse of the system. We believe that personalization is still in the early stages of development with the vast majority of web searchers being aware of, or using, this option, although it is likely to gradually increase usage within the market and to become a more significant issue for search engine optimisation.

3) Behavioural advertising becomes the next ‘big thing’: this is still expected to become a key service for advertisers but has still to become a mainstream function, partly due to the technology still being developed and data being collected, as well as the privacy issues that are raised once individuals realise how their data is being used to target advertising. The huge mass of data that’s being collected by search engines and other major web properties should provide highly targeted advertising opportunities but the balance between this and privacy concerns is still to be determined.

4) Content targeted advertising becomes the new PPC battleground: Google has made further improvements to the content advertising network for PPC advertisers in 2008, most notably with the introduction of Placement advertising, and with the use of display and video advertising options. This sector has not become a battleground as other PPC services offer weak alternatives, but with better data and reporting on Google’s own service, the content network has become a more accountable resource to extend the reach of this targeted form of advertising.

5) Mobile search finally becomes serious: the launch of the Apple iPhone at the start of the year and the new Google-apps phone some months later has marked the start of the mobile Internet in earnest. The range of applications seems to be limited only by ideas at the moment and so as these type of phones gain market share and become ‘the norm’, then companies need to seriously think about focusing part of their online presence to the mobile market. This has yet to happen in any significant volume but the signs are there and examples can be demonstrated.

What do we predict will be some of the main trends this year? Here are our 5 thoughts for 2008.

1. “Universal search” becomes a significant optimisation issue: the introduction of “universal search” results by Google – where images, videos or maps are displayed within the main search listings for a relevant search – followed the earlier move by Ask and were then followed by similar changes at Yahoo! and MSN. The quality and extent of these universal search results will really be noticeable in 2008, which will produce a greater need for more flexible search engine optimisation techniques, as well as make companies review the way that all of their online content could be used to generate search engine traffic. A greater flexibility within PPC advertising may also follow and provide new opportunities to display text or images within the main search listings.
2. Personalisation gains ground: the “opt-in” use of personalisation has yet to be adopted by most web users, particularly within search results. However, the opportunities to adapt the web to your own needs will become more widespread and accepted, with the BBC now offering this option to users and iGoogle also gaining ground. The impact of this trend will mean more detail on web usage being available to companies and new services being introduced in response to dominant trends. Within search results the importance of attracting clickthroughs from PPC and “natural” search listings will become more important, as will the underlying visitor trends and site usability.
3. Behavioural advertising becomes the next “big thing”: this is quite closely linked to the personalisation trend although other data can be used by large networks to identify market segments for more targeted advertising, whether through search or by display advertising. Google’s long drawn out acquisition of DoubleClick should be finalized soon and this is expected to yield new services and techniques for advertisers to compete with services being introduced by Yahoo! and MSN. As Facebook discovered recently however, behavioural advertising needs to be handled carefully to avoid too much intrusion of privacy, but for advertisers this could become the best way of improving ROI over the next 12 months.
4. Content targeted advertising becomes the new PPC battleground: Google remains the only one of the main PPC tools to really offer a powerful third-party advertising network where adverts are generated by page content matches. The improvements made by Google to the content-targeted tools in 2007 has made this a much more open and manageable PPC option and there are signs that as the main AdWords network becomes more competitive and costly, content targeted can be a more cost-effective way of generating business. More testing needs to be done here but the potential reach of this network now makes it an important part of any online marketing strategy.
5. Mobile search finally becomes serious: after many false dawns with mobile marketing, 2008 could finally be the year when this really takes off. The adoption of the 3G mobile broadband network, the worldwide launch of the Apple iPhone, the development of Google’s mobile phone software and the massive use of mobile phones in China, could mark the tipping point where many more companies need to start considering how they could take advantage of this market and what needs to be done, either with their websites or their use of search.