Mobile is now Critical for Marketing

By MMA on October 24, 2011

According to Google, its going to be important that where you send someone once they click your ad on their cell phone or tablet. Google also decided to limit the how often an ad shows on high-end mobile devices when those ads point to landing pages (where a visitor goes from the ad) which are either flash content.

Obviously, Google wants their users to have a pleasant experience when they click your ad. One of their own studies said that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Yikes.

So for the business using adword ads on mobile devices would be smart to develop a product specific microsites or mobile landing pages.

The idea here is to to run separate campaigns and think far more local. Don’t try to clump all your adword campaigns on both desktop and mobile targets – create two different campaigns – one for desktop and one for local. As you review your analytics you can see how interactions are different between desktop and mobile.

When you run a mobile campaign in adwords, you have to remember that ad space is limited so you’re really aiming for the top two positions which will show up above the organic search results. The rest of the ads are delivered at the bottom of results.

Whenever possible changing the call to action to match the device could also generate consumer activity. For instance, ads that show up on cell phones prompt with “Call today for a quote.” For tablet mobile users phrase it along the lines of “Browse our catalog from tablet.”

When preparing your mobile campaigns – find mobile specific keyword ideas and traffic estimates. Local is key because one out of every three search quiries has a local intent on Google. And Google’s own research demonstrates that 61% of users call the business after finding it from a mobile ad and of those 59% visit the actual business’s physical location.

If you would like help with creating mobile landing pages for your upcoming advertising campaign, give us a call – 512-537-5868

Your Austin SEO Company

13581 Pond Springs Road, Suite 301

Austin, TX 78729

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Categories: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Search Implications, Mobile Websites

Can someone use your content in their app?

By MMA on October 21, 2011

There’s a lot of excitement around iphone apps and how to develop them. Just last year Apple paid developers on its app platform store $3 BILLION. That’s with a “b”. There are over 140,000 iPad apps and 500,000 appsin the iphone store according information provided by Apple.

Which is why I was very interested when I read that an Austin photographer is suing Apple claiming that they have been selling two apps that use her photos that she published up on Flickr with copyright protection notices. The two apps in question are The Unofficial Guide to Hipstamatic and Photoinspire which have republished her photos within their apps without her copyright notices or a credit to her as photographer.

She does admit that she uses Hipstamatic to post her photos on Flickr.

This is particularly interesting. I’m not an attorney so my opinion is just that, my opinion, but why is Apple MORE culpable than Hipstamatic and Photoinspire?

Given that its a requirement to set up an account with a company say like Hipstamatic before using their services, what does Histamatic say when a photographer uses their service? I took a look at their terms of service – which you can read here – http://community.hipstamatic.com/general_terms and what I found interesting was this part.

You grant to us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to use, in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content in connection with the Websites and our Products. You represent and warrant that you have the right to grant the license of your User Submissions granted in this Agreement. You are still the owner of your User Submissions and are still free to use them in any manner you choose. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if you are providing User Content to the “Family Album™” feature that we make available through the Products or the Websites and you select the option marking such User Content as “private” when uploading such User Content, the foregoing license is only granted to us to the extent that we may provide those users whom you have granted rights to view your private User Content access to view such User Content through our “Family Album™” feature and we may not otherwise use such User Content without first obtaining your permission.

So what do you think about this? Do you think if you use a service for your content, can that service and make an app and use your content as per your agreement with them – and sell it in the app store but make Apple liable for copyright infringement?

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Categories: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Apps

Why your business needs a mobile website in 2011

By MMA on July 18, 2011

eMarketer quoted an Ad-ology survey today that found that 46 percent of small business owners do not have a Web site in 2009. A separate Vistaprint study cited by eMarketer found that only half of those with a site are currently tracking their marketing efforts.

Business owners need help.

What are You losing by NOT having a Mobile Web site?

In a word – Customers.

What you need to understand is that people aren’t using phone books for anything other than door stops anymore. As of 2010, all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) are skewing search queries towards local even when a user doesn’t include a local modifier. That means if you type in “cd duplication” your results because you are searching from your specific location will show you resources in that town even if you didn’t type it as “cd duplication austin” or “cd duplication houston”. As a small business owner you need to not only create a mobile presence, but to control it, as well.

Can’t I just use Yelp for my mobile site?

It’s possible to create a mobile presence without a mobile site thanks to things like Yelp and other social media outlets. However, you don’t control any of those. You have no say on how they’ll let you connect with customers. You can’t create an email list on Twitter. By relying on *other* sites to house your conversations you’re severely limiting the effectiveness of your business.

Without a real mobile Web site, you lose your ability to:

Distinguish yourself from your competitors – do they make it easy for clients to find them on a phone?
Benefit from the engines bias to show mobile local results – and having a mobile site is now a factor
Save costs by answering frequently asked questions
Target your specific neighborhood (defined by zip code, points of interest, ideas, etc)
Build an email list.

Where should you start in building a mobile web site?

Identify the purpose(s) of the site: Not all small business Web sites have the same goal so the goal of your mobile site may be different from your standard site. You would want to consider that a mobile customer’s needs might be different from someone searching on their computer. A mobile visitor might need directions, a quick way to call to make sure you’re open as well as confirmation that your services and products are what they are looking for. Give some thought to what you want to accomplish before you consider anything else. You’d be surprised how it changes your perspective.

Get a mobile expert to create your site: Ideally you’ll find someone who can add a little code to your current site that when someone comes to your site with a mobile phone that code will redirect to your mobile site. Much easier, smoother and friendlier to mobile customers. You can create a much sleeker mobile site to compliment the work of your main site.

Contact us for affordable effective mobile websites and have your very own within a few days for as little as $397 if you act fast.

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Categories: Mobile Advertising, Mobile Websites

Do you have a Mobile or Mobile Friendly Site?

By MMA on June 11, 2011

If you don’t know the answer to this one the answer is probably no. But the real question could be, why would you need one? After all, as business owners we don’t just want the thing necessarily – we want what the thing can bring us – whatever that thing is.

I’m posting a comparison on what my mobile version of my site looks like on a cell phone and what the standard site looks like when viewed from a cell phone. It looks different, yes? Which one would you rather see on your phone?

You can see that they both are clickable and you can move around. Imagine your site and then put yourself in the shoes of your customers or potential customers – what is your experience?

Please post your comments below.

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Categories: Uncategorized

Mobile Users Prefer to use Browsers rather than Apps

By MMA on October 27, 2010

Despite the popularity of applications evidenced by the numbers of mobile phone subscribers that download them (about 1/3), users appear to prefer browsers for their phones.

According to a poll of mobile users, a preference is shown for mobile browsers to access almost all mobile content. Only when it comes to games, music and social media do that change over to an application preference.

Whether or not a mobile user was doing research on a product to purchase or price info or sharing that info, the data showed a clear propensity for users going for a browser rather than a dedicated app.

So if company’s are looking for a way to brand themselves, applications may not be the slam dunk.

And when it comes to websites that are trying to be mobile friendly, consumers are saying they are less than impressed with the efforts by company’s so far. A preference is for the regular site on the small screen even if a mobile one is available in the product shopping or entertainment categories. Apparently consumers are frustrated with what they see as limited functionality that may such sites provide on the mobile version.

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Categories: Mobile Advertising

Mobile is the future

By MMA on June 2, 2010

1. How many small businesses don’t have websites?

46%

2. How many small businesses don’t have mobile websites?

99.99%

3. How many local searches on traditional web according to Google?

1 in 5 = 20%

4. How many local searches on mobile web as per Google who owns 90% of search engine searches on mobile devices?

9 out of 10 = 90% are for local businesses and local information

Mobile will drive local search growth!

Mobile local searches will increase to 35% of ALL searches by 2013.

There are 5 times more mobile phones than computers!

Google’s CEO said:

“Mobile is GOOGLE’S #1 initiative going forward”

More important than traditional internet!!!!

What does this mean to you?

If you’re a business – - – - -CUSTOMERS.

Call me to find out how. 512-496-1978

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Categories: Mobile Search Implications