Mobile Website SEO

Mobile enabled websites or .Mobi sites is the big focus for 2009.

It is by no means a new focus and these sites have been developed since about 2006, evolving annually. Towards the second half of 2008 we saw the statistics for mobile web access as well as .mobi site development soar. According to statistics by Opera Mini, users viewed more than 5.7 billion pages in November 2008. Since October, page views have gone up 12.1%. Since November 2007, this number is up 303%.

Most mobile phones are equipped with web browsers which allow you to view websites as you would on your computer, just in a smaller screen. Since late last year there has been quite a surge in the interest to redevelop consumer focussed websites to a mobi site platform. This platform allows the website to be flexible to view normally on your computer and transcend equally to view via mobile web browser. Sites that you are already familiar with that make use of this include Facebook, Twitter , Google (of course) , BBC and a plethora of others. In South Africa specifically the two that are most popular is not a surprise – Facebook and Google. As far as email goes, it is interesting to note that, according to a survey by Opera (the browser, not a misspelling of the famous talk show host) webmail.co.za has now overshot gmail as the preferred provider through mobile access.

With an increase in .mobi websites comes the need for the ability to find sites easily. Enter .mobi search engines. And with .mobi search engines, the next step is .mobi Search Engine Optimisation. (.mobi SEO)

Although still in infancy, we’ve found that currently by optimising websites with traditional SEO (give or take a few tweaks here and there) your site will rank well at this early stage, however the .mobi engines are slowly making relevancy tweaks and the .mobi SEO is evolving! Some of the .mobi search engines include: Google of course (MSN & Yahoo too), Technorati, Taptu, FindMobi, 7335Mobi and Mobi Only (Which uses Google Mobile as search driver).

For developers, a free testing tool called Ready.mobi is available to analyze the mobile readiness of websites. It does a free page analysis and gives a .mobi Ready score from 1 to 5.

Although AlterSage does not offer .mobi development, we work closely with FormFunction who do offer .mobi site development.

We are at the forefront of .mobi SEO and the increase in .mobi SEO enquiries we’ve seen in just the last week has convinced me that it will be an exciting year of new challenges as the .mobi search engines come into their own right. If you are interested in .mobi SEO, or think that your site may be a good candidate to move to a mobile platform, don’t hesitate to speak with us.