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Mobile SEO is a waste of time

July 29th, 2008 | Category: Google, Marketing, SEO, Web Design, local search

I’ve read a few articles recently about “optimizing your website for mobile SEO”. I know it’s the big focus of many conferences in 2008, but frankly, I think this is kind of a waste of time. Mobile SEO - SEO - it will all be the same very soon. As more and more mobile devices become more of an internet gateway than just a mobile device, search engines are going to have to catch up. People will no longer think “I’m on a mobile device, I want mobile results”. They will move to think more along the lines of, I know I get these results on my laptop, so I would expect a similar result set on my mobile device. Just because I’m on a mobile device should not change the results.

PPC/SEM
I think for the short term, at least until search engines combine results, running mobile search campaigns is still worthwhile. However, for the longer term, PPC/SEM will follow suit soon after people begin to expect more from their mobile results.

Design
I do however think designing and thinking about mobile is still a key issue when designing for mobile devices and something that should be kept in mind. Just because you are designing for the web, doesn’t mean that users will not access the site using a mobile device. There are a number of websites which can address the minor technical issues associated with developing a mobile stylesheet. Here are just a few:

Now as for local search optimization, I think this is one of the key segments where search optimization can make a big difference, but that’s for a later post. What do you think? Is mobile seo worth your time, or just another piece of hype to keep many SEO’ers busy for 2008/09?

Sphinn

2 Comments so far

  1. Zulema July 29th, 2008 10:53 am

    I didn’t even know Mobile SEO was something to be aware of! I’m glad I missed that boat.

    I agree that mobile design is key with keeping file sizes small. But with more and more iPhone and clones come out, that may no longer be an issue either.

  2. SEM Pune July 30th, 2008 12:30 am

    This is the first time i’m hearing the term Mobile SEO. It’s a new concept, and who knows, maybe it will catch on. But with the rate at which technology is developing in mobile devices, a full fledged browser on mobiles will be the thing of the future. So, there won’t be nay differentiation.

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