Steps to Prep Your Website for Mobile Domination

Overheard: “Our site doesn’t need to be mobile, no one goes to our site from their phone!”

Mobile is here to stay, and anyone with a business needs to prepare for the coming. In a recent article entitled “Mobile Matters: 15 Mobile Search Stats That Ring True” as featured on MediaPost, here are a few of the stats that were highlighted and may have an impact on your own mobile site development timeline:

• 38% of mobile phones in the U.S. are smart phones
• Mobile searches make up 20% of the total searches on Yahoo and 15% on Google
• 30% of mobile searches are done so with local intent
• 49% of mobile searchers made at least one purchase via their phone in the past 12 months

Reconsidering your stance on mobilizing your site? Yeah, we thought that might do it.

Here are a few things to consider on your journey down the road to mobile.

How Many Mobile Visitors Do You Currently Have?

Using site traffic data through Google Analytics (or whichever traffic tool you use), determine how many people have visited your site via mobile device. It’s pretty simple to do: just log into your analytics account then click on “Advanced Segments” and select Mobile Traffic. This will filter your data to only show you the information relating to those who visited your site using a mobile device.

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Look at Growth, Not the Number

Unless you are really pushing your mobile site, those accessing with a phone are likely few and far between, but don’t put all of your stock in the number. Look at a longer time period – beyond just the past 30 days. NOW look at the percentage of your traffic that’s generated through mobile visits. In this case 8.39% – nothing to scoff at – but even more impressive is the visible amount of mobile users evident by the graph.

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Redefine KPIs with Mobile in Mind

When looking at the usual suspects of key performance indicators; while we may look at the same factors as we do with regular web traffic, remember to adjust the bar for mobile. So what does that mean? If your definition of a “quality visitor” to your site is someone who spends an average of 3.5 minutes looking at approximately four pages and completes an online form for more info – this WILL NOT be the same for your mobile visitors. Adjust based on what mobile visitors are doing and how long it takes them to get it done while on your site.

Mobile Site Layout

If you are in the planning stages of making your site mobile ready, look to the full spectrum of data to decide what it is that you want people to do on your site and what they will likely want to access via a mobile site.

The top pages for mobile users tend to be those that have been promoted through print advertising, while those that result from search terms tend to visit the same pages as they seek more information on your company, service lines and contact information.

Be sure to add a script to the pages of your site that detects mobile visitors – those coming in via desktop or laptop. This should redirect them to a subdomain such as “m.YOURDOMAIN.com” – this allows you to easily filter mobile visitor data from that of your main website.

*Remember to include Google Analytics tracking code on EVERY PAGE of your mobile site – review the data behind visitor behavior and actions taken to continue to evolve your mobile site accordingly.

A few mobile site creation resources worth looking at include Google Mobile Sites and Mobile Sites Galore.

• Mobile home page provides only links to those pages that have been created as part of the mini site
• Only create pages that mobile users are currently accessing or that keyword data indicates the level of interest in finding
• Keep information on mobile pages minimal yet informative
• Create a short, simple form that can be easily completed on a phone
• Encourage or entice (with a little something extra) to get mobile visitors to submit this form to track the effectiveness of the site (can you say ‘conversions’?)
• Make clickable items easy to follow with a finger (and not a mouse); larger buttons work rather than clickable text

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SEO for Mobile

You knew I was going to go there – didn’t ya? Yes, even mobile sites need to be optimized. But before you can optimize, understand that the way we search on our phones is often different than the way we search online. Perform keyword research that is specific to mobile users. Even the Google Keyword Tool allows you to filter for searches performed on phones versus general laptop or desktop queries.

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Be sure to optimize the pages of your mobile site with keywords that are relevant to mobile searchers, but brevity is key – so keep it short, sweet and to the point.

BONUS: A Little Lagniappe

One final thought: if you do in fact create a mobile site, why not take it a step further? Next time you buy a print ad, create a QR code that connects the reader directly to the mobile site since they have to use their phone to scan it anyway!

Taking it a step further: you can track the effectiveness of the ad placement and the scan code by adding a trackable URL to see how many visits the ad had in that specific publication (source), the medium it was distributed (print) and the focus of the ad (campaign) – all by tracking back to your Google Analytics. It’s easier than you think with the Google URL Builder.

 http://m.YOURDOMAIN.com/?utm_source=Publication&utm_medium=Print-Ad&utm_campaign=New-Product-Push

Then, take the unique URL and use it to create a QR code using an easy tool like Goo.gl to create a trackable short code that also creates a QR code to use. These also provide basic metrics of scans and platforms, as shown below.

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Think of it as call tracking gone digital! By creating a unique link for each publication, you can really show the value of that ad.

So get started on your mobilizing your website! And be sure to share your creations with us. We’d love to see how it turned out.

Adele Tiblier
Adele serves as FSC Interactive's Director of Interactive Strategy guiding all efforts in search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM or Paid Placement) as well as working with the social media team to ensure that campaigns are cohesive and technically sound. She has a professed love of all things Google, shoes and her kids (possibly in that order).

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