How to Display and View Mobile Search Results
By EM Beck
One of the current issues with mobile web browsers for mobile phones is that not all web pages are designed for viewing on smaller screens. Many new smart phones will provide full HTML capable access, but users may still find they spend too much time zooming in-and-out in order to view and read important information. This is why most popular sites on the Internet now are providing mobile versions of their traditional websites.
In order to view many of these sites, you simply need to know that you can replace the leading "www" with the letter "m" followed by dot and the domain name. The mobile web address then becomes "m.yourdomainname.com". This rule of thumb is quite common for many mobile enabled websites. Another common workarounds is to replace the ".com" after the title with ".mobi". Should you be searching with a mobile device on the mobile web, the process may be a bit more involved, but not necessarily any more confusing.
It appears that all of the major search engines now have mobile versions of their online services to compensate for this. You should note that Google has m.google.com, the newest version of Microsoft's Bing can be reached at m.bing.com, and Yahoo may be accessed on the mobile web at m.yahoo.com.
Another mobile web feature for these sites is that you can configure settings and format pages from your mobile phone to be viewed in a way that you prefer for your device. The current default is that you will normally see page content in a single column with minimal graphics. This also means that you will not have to zoom in out on your mobile screen to read the results once the pages load.
Ideally, and most likely the best scenario is to combine mobile search engine results with SERPs that are specifically designed for mobile devices without the search engines being required to reformat large-scale web pages. Many mobile web search engines and mobile directories are presently designed to provide this automatically. One of the best examples of this is Taptu.com, as it only provide searches for mobile compliant websites. Taptu is also available as a down-loadable stand-alone app for smart devices like the iPhone or the iPad Touch. Also, consider that with the advent of the Google Android phone, mobile web-surfing will only continue to become more mainstream.
Optimizing for the Mobile Web
When it comes to optimizing your web content for Google Mobile and other mobile search engines, there are several things that you need to consider. Much has been written that you should seriously consider developing a mobile version of your traditional website. Another approach often suggested is to take the time to make sure that your existing sites are "mobile-friendly", which simply means that they are easily accessible for mobile browsers.
So, whether you optimize your traditional websites for the mobile web, or you take the time and effort to invest in a new mobile compliant version of your website, there are certain things you can do to better assure that you can rank well for mobile search results. Here are a few reasonable suggestions. One of the easiest approaches is to create a "sub-domain" for your mobile web version, instead of launching a separate domain like a dot mobi site. This results in giving your mobile site a name like "mobile.yourdomainname.com". This will allow you to retain the branding of your current TLD without having to do a lot of extra search engine optimization. This will work just fine if you find your desired dot mobi name is not available to register. You can also accomplish this by creating an extension like "yourdomain.com/mobile", just like you would for a blog.
Other Mobile Search Developments
Searches with a smart phone can be a totally different experience with different results. When you start a mobile search on Google with an iPhone or an Android enabled device, you also will get apps results along with other search results. The app links will take you to pages in the iPhone App Store and the Android Market. This is great for instant app downloads, and the links typically contain star ratings, reviews, pricing, and information about the app maker. This too will cut down on the need for back-and-forth navigation when performing search on the mobile web.
Yahoo mobile web search results should see expanded search results. Yahoo has noticeable alterations as to how it declares search results for local business listings, entertainment, stocks, videos, and images on smart phones.
Technology is becoming more mobile, and there is a definite, but maybe somewhat more subtle shift to mobility. This is similar to the shift from desktop computing to portable computing. Don't be left behind and scratching your head as to what happened, and why you did not see the trend.
In order to view many of these sites, you simply need to know that you can replace the leading "www" with the letter "m" followed by dot and the domain name. The mobile web address then becomes "m.yourdomainname.com". This rule of thumb is quite common for many mobile enabled websites. Another common workarounds is to replace the ".com" after the title with ".mobi". Should you be searching with a mobile device on the mobile web, the process may be a bit more involved, but not necessarily any more confusing.
It appears that all of the major search engines now have mobile versions of their online services to compensate for this. You should note that Google has m.google.com, the newest version of Microsoft's Bing can be reached at m.bing.com, and Yahoo may be accessed on the mobile web at m.yahoo.com.
Another mobile web feature for these sites is that you can configure settings and format pages from your mobile phone to be viewed in a way that you prefer for your device. The current default is that you will normally see page content in a single column with minimal graphics. This also means that you will not have to zoom in out on your mobile screen to read the results once the pages load.
Ideally, and most likely the best scenario is to combine mobile search engine results with SERPs that are specifically designed for mobile devices without the search engines being required to reformat large-scale web pages. Many mobile web search engines and mobile directories are presently designed to provide this automatically. One of the best examples of this is Taptu.com, as it only provide searches for mobile compliant websites. Taptu is also available as a down-loadable stand-alone app for smart devices like the iPhone or the iPad Touch. Also, consider that with the advent of the Google Android phone, mobile web-surfing will only continue to become more mainstream.
Optimizing for the Mobile Web
When it comes to optimizing your web content for Google Mobile and other mobile search engines, there are several things that you need to consider. Much has been written that you should seriously consider developing a mobile version of your traditional website. Another approach often suggested is to take the time to make sure that your existing sites are "mobile-friendly", which simply means that they are easily accessible for mobile browsers.
So, whether you optimize your traditional websites for the mobile web, or you take the time and effort to invest in a new mobile compliant version of your website, there are certain things you can do to better assure that you can rank well for mobile search results. Here are a few reasonable suggestions. One of the easiest approaches is to create a "sub-domain" for your mobile web version, instead of launching a separate domain like a dot mobi site. This results in giving your mobile site a name like "mobile.yourdomainname.com". This will allow you to retain the branding of your current TLD without having to do a lot of extra search engine optimization. This will work just fine if you find your desired dot mobi name is not available to register. You can also accomplish this by creating an extension like "yourdomain.com/mobile", just like you would for a blog.
Other Mobile Search Developments
Searches with a smart phone can be a totally different experience with different results. When you start a mobile search on Google with an iPhone or an Android enabled device, you also will get apps results along with other search results. The app links will take you to pages in the iPhone App Store and the Android Market. This is great for instant app downloads, and the links typically contain star ratings, reviews, pricing, and information about the app maker. This too will cut down on the need for back-and-forth navigation when performing search on the mobile web.
Yahoo mobile web search results should see expanded search results. Yahoo has noticeable alterations as to how it declares search results for local business listings, entertainment, stocks, videos, and images on smart phones.
Technology is becoming more mobile, and there is a definite, but maybe somewhat more subtle shift to mobility. This is similar to the shift from desktop computing to portable computing. Don't be left behind and scratching your head as to what happened, and why you did not see the trend.
Want to know more about the mobile web and mobile website design? Mobile Web Directory Blog
E.M. Beck is an SEO and online marketer. He writes about a lot of different things online, but also enjoys dreaming up and testing new ways to use technology, including the new dot mobi resources for mobile and wireless marketing.
You can learn about his latest projects, the "Mobile Website Directory" and the "goMobi Mobile Website Builder" at MobileWebsiteDirectory.net
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=EM_Beck
Highly skilled SEOs are always looking for new ways to make links more powerful, helping websites get better search engine placement. Creating a network of mobile websites to compliment the traditional web may just be one way that has been more or less overlooked.
Don't worry too much if you know nothing about building a mobile website, because for many reasons it may be considered less complicated than developing a complex website for the legacy Internet. It is something you should consider doing now, before everyone else in your business niche figures out how powerful it can be to have a network of high traffic sites on the mobile web.
There are several different ways and different theories on how to approach mobile websites and the mobile web. The old guard believes that the Internet should be "device neutral", and there is another group that think mobile phones, PDAs, and other wireless devices should have a more unique approach in the way websites are designed for mobile consumption. There is validity to both views, and the central theme is that mobile websites should be smaller information sites that can download fast to save time and network resources.
Don't worry too much about this debate, and simply get started somehow with building a small site that can be viewed easily on mobile devices and indexed easily on the mobile search engines. Just know for now that Google has decided that a mobile site will be indexed separately from a regular website, which means there may be some opportunities when it comes to mobile search engine optimization and the future of marketing to mobile users.
An interesting fact is that Google indicates they will still serve up a version of traditional websites when a mobile browser is detected. This is part of the same controversy of having to deal with a full-blown website on your mobile phone versus a light-weight version with smaller pages designed to favor text over graphics. Some critics have compared this to be like reading a book with a magnifying glass and having to scroll all over the place to see anything on a smaller screen.
Another option, if you are a WordPress user, is to utilize some of the popular plugins that will detect what kind of browser visitors to your website are using, and then the correct view of your web pages will be displayed (WordPress Mobile Pack, MobilePress). These are simple and useful tools, but probably will not provide any of the extra SEO advantages of being able to index what otherwise might be considered duplicate content. This is why buying a separate domain name for use on the mobile web, and then building only a few pages of essential information may be smart. You can create a CNAME record for mdot (m.), or register a TLD dotmobi (.mobi). These are recognized as being mobile friendly URLs. Winksite.com and Mobify.me are two online services you can use to build a mobile site for free. These are pretty intuitive "point-and-click" online solutions that will work as a start, and also get you in the habit of thinking smaller for mobile sites.
Depending on your approach, from there your SEO efforts can duplicate some of what you already do online, or it can take on some new characteristics unique to the mobile web like adding QR codes. Needless to say, you will want to build back links, but you may have to find some new ways and experiment along the way to see what gets you the best results. Favorites here will still be social bookmarks, forum and blog comments, and submission to mobile web directories and mobile search engines.
RSS feeds are a great way to promote online, and this is a shortfall for what you will see currently offered for mobile sites. You can use RSS to promote mobile sites, but you won't normally find these feeds as a built-in feature like in WordPress. In most instances you will have to create your own RSS feed using one of the RSS conversion sites like Feedage.com. RSS compliments the mobile web, since it is simple in concept and light-weight when it comes to computer code. Remember to submit your mobile site feeds to RSS directories and be sure to use tags that favor words indicating it is a mobile website.
It seems that even though the mobile web has been around for a few years now, for some reason it can still be considered a sleeping dragon. This makes it even more exciting, since there is still plenty of time to learn the ropes and become more-or-less an expert in the area of mobile website marketing before everyone else figures out what is going on.
Don't worry too much if you know nothing about building a mobile website, because for many reasons it may be considered less complicated than developing a complex website for the legacy Internet. It is something you should consider doing now, before everyone else in your business niche figures out how powerful it can be to have a network of high traffic sites on the mobile web.
There are several different ways and different theories on how to approach mobile websites and the mobile web. The old guard believes that the Internet should be "device neutral", and there is another group that think mobile phones, PDAs, and other wireless devices should have a more unique approach in the way websites are designed for mobile consumption. There is validity to both views, and the central theme is that mobile websites should be smaller information sites that can download fast to save time and network resources.
Don't worry too much about this debate, and simply get started somehow with building a small site that can be viewed easily on mobile devices and indexed easily on the mobile search engines. Just know for now that Google has decided that a mobile site will be indexed separately from a regular website, which means there may be some opportunities when it comes to mobile search engine optimization and the future of marketing to mobile users.
An interesting fact is that Google indicates they will still serve up a version of traditional websites when a mobile browser is detected. This is part of the same controversy of having to deal with a full-blown website on your mobile phone versus a light-weight version with smaller pages designed to favor text over graphics. Some critics have compared this to be like reading a book with a magnifying glass and having to scroll all over the place to see anything on a smaller screen.
Another option, if you are a WordPress user, is to utilize some of the popular plugins that will detect what kind of browser visitors to your website are using, and then the correct view of your web pages will be displayed (WordPress Mobile Pack, MobilePress). These are simple and useful tools, but probably will not provide any of the extra SEO advantages of being able to index what otherwise might be considered duplicate content. This is why buying a separate domain name for use on the mobile web, and then building only a few pages of essential information may be smart. You can create a CNAME record for mdot (m.), or register a TLD dotmobi (.mobi). These are recognized as being mobile friendly URLs. Winksite.com and Mobify.me are two online services you can use to build a mobile site for free. These are pretty intuitive "point-and-click" online solutions that will work as a start, and also get you in the habit of thinking smaller for mobile sites.
Depending on your approach, from there your SEO efforts can duplicate some of what you already do online, or it can take on some new characteristics unique to the mobile web like adding QR codes. Needless to say, you will want to build back links, but you may have to find some new ways and experiment along the way to see what gets you the best results. Favorites here will still be social bookmarks, forum and blog comments, and submission to mobile web directories and mobile search engines.
RSS feeds are a great way to promote online, and this is a shortfall for what you will see currently offered for mobile sites. You can use RSS to promote mobile sites, but you won't normally find these feeds as a built-in feature like in WordPress. In most instances you will have to create your own RSS feed using one of the RSS conversion sites like Feedage.com. RSS compliments the mobile web, since it is simple in concept and light-weight when it comes to computer code. Remember to submit your mobile site feeds to RSS directories and be sure to use tags that favor words indicating it is a mobile website.
It seems that even though the mobile web has been around for a few years now, for some reason it can still be considered a sleeping dragon. This makes it even more exciting, since there is still plenty of time to learn the ropes and become more-or-less an expert in the area of mobile website marketing before everyone else figures out what is going on.
Want to know more about the mobile web and mobile website design? Mobile Web Directory Blog
E.M. Beck is an SEO and online marketer. He writes about a lot of different things online, but also enjoys dreaming up and testing new ways to use technology, including the new dot mobi resources for mobile and wireless marketing.
You can learn about his latest projects, the "Mobile Website Directory" and the "goMobi Mobile Website Builder" at MobileWebsiteDirectory.net
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=EM_Beck
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Do you want to access the mobile web and mobile websites with a mobile phone? Visit Mobile Web Directory.mobi.
E.M. Beck is an SEO and online marketer. He writes about a lot of different things online, but also enjoys dreaming up and testing new ways to use technology, including the new dot mobi resources for mobile and wireless marketing.
You can learn about his latest projects, the "Mobile Website Directory" and the "goMobi Mobile Website Builder" at MobileWebsiteDirectory.net.
Simple Is Better for the Mobile Web
By EM Beck There is a shift coming to the Internet that will impact the way web business is done. This is a quiet revolution and has been in the making for some time. This involves important shifts in market demographics combined with advances in mobile and wireless technologies.
Some of the current research is counter-intuitive, because as consumers we have been trained to believe that bigger is better, just like faster should always equate to something of greater value. In the case of the mobile web, we are talking about much smaller devices, smaller screens, and for the time being smaller bandwidth that equates to slower download speeds. On the other hand, there is plenty of research to indicate that consumers are buying more cell phones than computers, and accessing the Internet more often with wireless devices. The Global Mobile Data Forecast reports that the use of mobile data rose faster than anticipated in 2010 (159%), and that by 2015 there will most likely be on average one mobile device per person worldwide.
Some business analysts say that smart phones and smart mobile devices should be the target for new marketing efforts. Others consider that targeting a broader audience of all wireless devices is the road to success for marketing in the future. This can be confusing, but we can at least conclude that mobile website viewing is growing at an astounding rate. The best way to get around the scaled down screen sizes and scaled down network speeds in the near term is to scale down the design and functionality of mobile websites. This generally is going to mean less information and fewer graphics.
Building Simple Mobile Sites
When you first consider building a mobile website, there are things you will soon discover that seem to be road blocks. These are obstacles for the mobile web that still beg for clear-cut answers. These are system-wide issues that have not yet been hammered out in a definitive way. Will a mobile version of your traditional website be considered duplicate content? Should a mobile website be accessible from the legacy hard-wired Internet? Can your current website be easily converted to serve as a mobile website? Do search engines index mobile websites? Does this mean that there are now two different and distinct Internets? How do you do SEO for a mobile website?
These are just a few questions you may have, and to be honest most of these questions do not yet have very good answers. This is because the mobile web is still evolving. Still, this is no reason to procrastinate and put off doing what will be a good business decision in the long run. Learn what you can, get started, and you can make alterations and corrections as the mobile web continues to mature. You could say that for now it makes perfect since that your mobile website should be a much simpler and scaled down version of your current website.
Your mobile site should eliminate slow loading graphics and have much less content, even to the point of being minimalistic. Find ways to simplify your overall design, the amount of content, and then pare things down to just a few essential pages. Focus your content on targeting mobile web visitors.
This is not a technical article, but suffice to say that you need to be aware that the mobile web uses a different type of computer code to be efficient, and you will need to make sure that your site is using a "valid markup" language for mobile sites. In fact, if you have a dot mobi domain name, this is supposed to be one of the original requirements to use that TLD. Mobile browsers for now are not very accommodating for bad computer coding. Make sure your mobile website is mobile-friendly. This means your site will be viewable on a wide range of cell phones and mobile devices and not just smart phones. You can validate your code by using a free online service like W3C Mobile OK Checker.
Screen size and resolution is another challenge. Typical screen resolution for top of the line mobile phones range from 400×240 to 960×640, and load speeds are dependent on the available bandwidth. This means that there are many added variables for displays and viewing. Add to this the fact that mobile devices have to connect using a wireless network and while on the move, and you begin to see other reasons why a mobile website needs to play by a completely different set of rules than a traditional website.
In conclusion, your mobile website needs to be more light-weight, because the mobile web is a much lighter version of the traditional web. The mobile web does not provide for the same stable high-speed connection that a hard-wired Internet pipeline provides. A separate mobile site is better suited, because the mobile web is designed for smaller screens, fewer graphics, fewer pages, and much simpler information. Your mobile message should be focused for a mobile audience. There are going to be challenges to creating your first mobile website, and there are many unresolved technical issues when it comes to the mobile web. However, there is no reason that you should not jump into the next generation of mobile and wireless computing.
Some of the current research is counter-intuitive, because as consumers we have been trained to believe that bigger is better, just like faster should always equate to something of greater value. In the case of the mobile web, we are talking about much smaller devices, smaller screens, and for the time being smaller bandwidth that equates to slower download speeds. On the other hand, there is plenty of research to indicate that consumers are buying more cell phones than computers, and accessing the Internet more often with wireless devices. The Global Mobile Data Forecast reports that the use of mobile data rose faster than anticipated in 2010 (159%), and that by 2015 there will most likely be on average one mobile device per person worldwide.
Some business analysts say that smart phones and smart mobile devices should be the target for new marketing efforts. Others consider that targeting a broader audience of all wireless devices is the road to success for marketing in the future. This can be confusing, but we can at least conclude that mobile website viewing is growing at an astounding rate. The best way to get around the scaled down screen sizes and scaled down network speeds in the near term is to scale down the design and functionality of mobile websites. This generally is going to mean less information and fewer graphics.
Building Simple Mobile Sites
When you first consider building a mobile website, there are things you will soon discover that seem to be road blocks. These are obstacles for the mobile web that still beg for clear-cut answers. These are system-wide issues that have not yet been hammered out in a definitive way. Will a mobile version of your traditional website be considered duplicate content? Should a mobile website be accessible from the legacy hard-wired Internet? Can your current website be easily converted to serve as a mobile website? Do search engines index mobile websites? Does this mean that there are now two different and distinct Internets? How do you do SEO for a mobile website?
These are just a few questions you may have, and to be honest most of these questions do not yet have very good answers. This is because the mobile web is still evolving. Still, this is no reason to procrastinate and put off doing what will be a good business decision in the long run. Learn what you can, get started, and you can make alterations and corrections as the mobile web continues to mature. You could say that for now it makes perfect since that your mobile website should be a much simpler and scaled down version of your current website.
Your mobile site should eliminate slow loading graphics and have much less content, even to the point of being minimalistic. Find ways to simplify your overall design, the amount of content, and then pare things down to just a few essential pages. Focus your content on targeting mobile web visitors.
This is not a technical article, but suffice to say that you need to be aware that the mobile web uses a different type of computer code to be efficient, and you will need to make sure that your site is using a "valid markup" language for mobile sites. In fact, if you have a dot mobi domain name, this is supposed to be one of the original requirements to use that TLD. Mobile browsers for now are not very accommodating for bad computer coding. Make sure your mobile website is mobile-friendly. This means your site will be viewable on a wide range of cell phones and mobile devices and not just smart phones. You can validate your code by using a free online service like W3C Mobile OK Checker.
Screen size and resolution is another challenge. Typical screen resolution for top of the line mobile phones range from 400×240 to 960×640, and load speeds are dependent on the available bandwidth. This means that there are many added variables for displays and viewing. Add to this the fact that mobile devices have to connect using a wireless network and while on the move, and you begin to see other reasons why a mobile website needs to play by a completely different set of rules than a traditional website.
In conclusion, your mobile website needs to be more light-weight, because the mobile web is a much lighter version of the traditional web. The mobile web does not provide for the same stable high-speed connection that a hard-wired Internet pipeline provides. A separate mobile site is better suited, because the mobile web is designed for smaller screens, fewer graphics, fewer pages, and much simpler information. Your mobile message should be focused for a mobile audience. There are going to be challenges to creating your first mobile website, and there are many unresolved technical issues when it comes to the mobile web. However, there is no reason that you should not jump into the next generation of mobile and wireless computing.
Do you want to access the mobile web and mobile websites with a mobile phone? Visit Mobile Web Directory.mobi.
E.M. Beck is an SEO and online marketer. He writes about a lot of different things online, but also enjoys dreaming up and testing new ways to use technology, including the new dot mobi resources for mobile and wireless marketing.
You can learn about his latest projects, the "Mobile Website Directory" and the "goMobi Mobile Website Builder" at MobileWebsiteDirectory.net.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=EM_Beck
