When Marissa Meyer spoke at SMX Sydney 2008 she mentioned the impact on search from the Iphone. Google saw dramatic increases in searches in June when the IPhone was initially launched and then again at Christmas time, when they knew people would be away from home and mainly for “weather”.
Early numbers reported on IPhone sales were 300,000 on launch. Calling around on Saturday I found most stores had sold out of the 16GB model. Optus and Vodafone reported network issues due to the fact that the network had never had that many signups in such a short space of time. I predict at least 1m IPhones will be sold in the next 3-6 months. Australia has a population of 20 million, around 12-14 million potential customers for the Iphone so thats around 8% adoption in a relatively shor space of time. Say within 2 years 20-25% of users have Iphones.
Will Mobile search be different?
People will search for information. Great! Tell me something I didnt know. Well, its the information that will be different. Small snippets relevant to a current task or need, and more than likely location based, even if that was not your intent. So for example:
- Finding a business telephone number or address, running late for a meeting or checking stock
- Establishing opening and closing times, when running early or late to the shops
- Checking prices or offers, when in the store considering a purchase
- Checking sports scores, when out of town
- Filling up waiting time, waiting for a plane, lets see what I can find.
- Urgent actions, I need to find a hospital in my current location
Note, I have no doubt there will be multiple impacts the Iphone will have on search, this is just he one I have chosen to write about. If you identify others, please leave a comment.
How does this impact on Search
In many cases the information being sought was previously buried in a website. Store opening times, addresses, contact details. Previously all sitting somewherre obscure now may need to be front of mind. For example, searches for “Bondi Junction opening times”. Currently raveaboutit.com.au ranks #1 and guess why? They have a page giving the name, address and opening times for Boni Juntion for a month. Great result, pity it was Christmas 2007 opening times. Ranking #2 is the Waverley Council. Neither of these have a presence in Bondi Junction. So, is there a missed opportunity for one of the Boni Juntion retailers to ensure they provide that information in a search result and get in the face from a branding perspective if nothing else of someone doing that search.
Say you are in a store looking at a new Plasma TV. You think its a bargain but youre not sure. Remember you are there so you will have the exact model, type etc for the TV. You search for “Sony Bravia 40 inch KDL40W4000 lcd tv prices” and you get Cnet and then the Whirlpool forums, both useful resources if you are researching but not helpful to check if you are potnetially paying the right price.
The point being that in the majority of cases the information being sought by a mobile search has the potential to be highly specific and exact. A price, a location, a time and in many cases most websites do not optimise for this kind of information, keeping it stored in the depths of the site or on a page with a lot of other information.
Considerations
To make sites relevant to mobile search: Webmasters will need to consider what specific, narrrow information users might be searching for about their business, location or surrounding area and optimise for this. For example, try these potentially mobile relevant searches:
MBF claims office Sydney CBD
Closing time Establishment bar
Rebel sports opening times cbd
None of them get your even close to what would appear to be a very clear search term.
Search Strategy considerations for Mobile
- Make sure you are in Google Maps, every branch, every office, every location
- Optimise your Google Maps entries
- Review your site and identify information which may be relevant to mobile users
- Determine whether you need a new, focussed page for that information or further optimisation for information previously not considered important
This is great opportunity to be relevant in search results for terms previously considered longer tail.
Now, can someone please tell me where to find a cheap, unlocked IPhone. Im desperate…
You must log in to post a comment.