The New Year was brought in with champagne bottles popping, balloons dropping, and unrealistic resolutions that never stick (congrats if they have for you). But once all the fun settled down, along came the expected tidal wave of predictions for 2011. It’s the year for this, the year of that, and I’ve got one more that you can add to the list- 2011 will be the year for mobile marketing. Oh, you want an explanation? Let me tell you why…

Growth

Mobile usage for search is increasing more and more every year, and with the launch of the new tablet category growth seems almost endless. In Fact, according to internal Google Data in Q3, Google searches from mobile devices increased by a whopping 130% year-over-year. In addition, a study by the Mobile Marketing Association found that 59% of consumers plan to do their holiday shopping via their mobile phones and overall Google searches have increased by five times the amount they were two years ago. That means if you aren’t optimized for mobile and aren’t doing any mobile marketing, you’re missing out on more than half of the consumer population shopping during the holidays.

Tools/Data

It seems obvious that the use of mobile phones to search and browse on the web has continued to increase every year, and every year they say “this is the year for mobile”, but this year Google is supporting that argument in a big way.

Say hello to the release of Google’s brand spankin’ new Mobile Keyword Tool.  This tool allows you to develop a more detailed keyword list to help target your specific audience. You can now find what people are searching for globally and locally from mobile phones, and not only that, you can also segment the audience by what type of mobile phone they are searching from (whether it be phones with WAP browsers, Full internet browsers like (iPhones and Droids), or both).
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It’s been confirmed that Google has recently begun testing some new language above the right side of their search results pages, where their paid ads are housed. These have historically been (and probably still are for most readers) labeled “Sponsored Links.” But before long you may see a new label above the ads…wait for it: “Ads” (gasp!).

This screen shot below shows the new “Ads” test (provided by a Google-related blog—we’re not seeing the test here at EIM yet):

And here’s a screen shot of what you’re used to seeing:

The desire for Google to experiment with this language certainly makes sense. On the one hand, “Sponsored Links” may in fact be misleading since Google doesn’t truthfully sponsor any of those products or services. Advertisers, such as envisionit and our clients, pay Google through their Adwords program to be listed there. On the other hand, the “Sponsored Link” language could soften the search experience in the eyes of the advertising-adverse searchers out there. The word “Ads” could potentially dissuade someone from clicking. And Google wants clicks—that’s how they make money. Do they label them what they are or do they spin the label to coerce searchers into clicking? (Hmm, it actually harkens back to the Facebook switch from “fan” to “like”).

If they move forward with this, it won’t be the most dramatic change Google has implemented in recent months. From Caffeine to Google Instant, the search engine behemoth has thrown a lot of curve balls at us lately—many of which have had us wondering what Google’s true agenda is (helping the greater good quickly find the information they seek online, or helping themselves make money?). There is no doubt, Google continues to keep search marketers on their toes, no matter the size of the shake-up.

When Google launched their brand new search engine enhancement Google Instant two weeks ago it sent the whole world of SEO/SEM into a frenzy. Every search marketer was asking questions, and nobody had any answers. (I can picture the nightmares already) But don’t worry search marketers you can slip on your onesies and sleep uninterrupted, because EIM has some answers for you.

What does Google Instant mean for SEO?

1. There is no change to the organic ranking algorithm

Although user experience is significantly affected,  Google search results will be ranked the same as always. (Don’t worry first pagers, your ranking will stay the same)

2. It’s very important to rank above the fold for general terms

There’s been a lot of talk that Google Instant is the death of SEO, but contrary to that rumor it has caused SEO to be even more important than ever. Before instant 68% of people didn’t go past the first page, now that instant is implemented it pushes all of the results down and to get to results on the bottom of the page you have to scroll down.  This means that more than likely the results above the above the fold will receive a significantly larger amount of traffic then the results below, which means you want to optimize to not only be on the first page, but in the top 5.

3. Optimize for both Short-Tail and Long-Tail Keywords

Now that instant’s auto suggest plays a larger factor then it used to, it is important to optimize for those more generic terms so you show up for the early rounds of auto suggest.
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In the spirit of optimization, we often sit in on online seminars about new technologies or topics important to our industry. Gotta keep this machine well-oiled! I recently sat in on a search marketing web seminar that was all about keyword research. Now, as these things tend to be, it was largely a sales pitch. Hrmpf. But, it did provide a nice reiteration of some best practices (so quick nod to the host of the webinar, paid search reporting platform, ClickEquations).

This inspired me to spread the continuing education love and share some small steps you must be taking in your keyword research and selection to make your paid search advertising campaigns successful.

Before you set up a campaign, you always start with your planning phase—the volume research, the competitive analysis, etc. This is an important phase. More important, though, is what comes after you launch your campaign: the keyword optimization. It’s important that you keep an eye on your keywords, measure performance, and use your findings to perfect your paid efforts.

Things to look for during the keyword optimization phase:

Absolutely review your search query reports regularly

• This tells you what detailed searches your visitors are actually finding you through and can drive a lot of your decisions regarding bidding strategies, budgets, negative keywords and more.

Look for themes and opportunities to break out campaigns or ad groups

• Your search query reports should start to reveal some behavioral trends among your visitors and give you ideas about how to narrow down your messages into more targeted ad groups.

Implement Exact Match on well-performing words

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If you are currently managing your organization’s paid search campaigns on Google, you may or may not be familiar with the latest and greatest improvements made recently to encourage visitors to click on your ads and continue on to your site or landing pages.  If you’re not familiar with the changes, here is a quick explanation of some of the new features, called Ad Extensions.

First off is your Location Extension. A location extension pulls in and displays a local business addresses that is associated with an account when your ad is shown, in order to make your ads more relevant. You can manually add an address in the Settings section, or associate it with your Google Places account. Location extensions are by default set at the Campaign level, but can also be set at the Ad level if you have, for example, specific promotions running at certain locations. Below is an example of a location extension.

Google Location Extensions

Next, and most recent, is a Phone Extension. This is where you can associate a phone number with an ad that allows a visitor the ability to click to call right from the ad. These phone numbers are displayed on computer or mobile devices with full Internet browsers. These are great for businesses, like attorneys, that rely heavily on phone calls for lead generation.

The last extension is the Product Extension. This is most relevant to ecommerce sites and business that have products listed on their site. You first need to create and upload your products to a Google Merchant Center account, and then you can link the two. Your ads will then display your products underneath them if you are listed in the top bid position. Below is an example of how Skechers uses product extentions.
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