The search industry has been dramatically affected by the increase in mobile usage. A recent study from April 2013 shows that consumers used their tablets and smartphones for 25% of their online searches, compared to 20% at the beginning of 2013!

Today, local business owners need to have a local search presence and recognize the fact that their website needs to be optimized for mobile devices. Google, Bing & Yahoo are continually tweaking their results to favor relevant answers that are within a specific proximity of the searcher. This means more results for local businesses, giving yet another reason to having an optimized mobile website that is user-friendly.

It’s pretty simple, when users find what they are looking for, they are more likely to become quality leads. Below are two vital reasons why a mobile website is important for SEO and branding:

1. Gives users the information they want from a mobile device in an easy organized manner. Bad experiences will hurt a business brand. The number one goal is to always create value for your user. According to a study by Google, some of the most important things you need to include on your mobile website are location, operating hours, and contact information. Google’s study states that 74% of survey respondents are more likely to visit mobile-friendly sites when searching on their smartphone.

2. Provide more keywords. We all know keywords are big for SEO. Having a mobile website gives you the chance to put your keywords to more use! However, remember to not just throw a bunch of keywords in your website. Be sure that it makes sense and provides value for your users! The value is what will help create positive branding and eventually, higher rankings.

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According to Mobile Marketer, mobile internet usage will surpass desktop internet usage by 2013.  Is this surprising?  Not to me it isn’t.  More than 50% of the U.S. population own smartphones, and that number is expected to magnify in the next couple years.

You can’t bring your PC or laptop with you wherever you go.  You can, however, bring your smartphone or tablet, and that’s what makes mobile such a conducive marketing tool.  With people carrying their internet-quipped devices with them everywhere, it gives them access to your products/services twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.  Portability plays a huge role in the success of mobile marketing.

If you haven’t already thought about utilizing mobile technology to enhance and grow your business, then I suggest you do so now.  I’ve put together a presentation to further your insight on how important mobile is for your business.

Source: Hubspot

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One company is trying to put the sweet and cute back into Valentine’s Day.  Starbucks recently released some nice heart-adorned cups.  But, there is something hidden in these hearts, they are part of a mobile augmented reality program.  If you have the app downloaded for iPhone or Android, and put the cup into your phone’s display, the hearts will come to life.  Heart-shaped flower petals will start flying off the cup.  What makes it sweet and cute, is that you can send a scene to your loved one via email or Facebook.

This is an excellent mobile marketing strategy by Starbucks, this will lead to sales, just so customers can send cute videos to each other, plus the nerd in some of us might get excited about Valentine’s Day, if we get to play with an augmented reality program.  Come on that is just COOL!  Not to mention the ability to share the scene on Facebook, which will lead to more people wanting to play with the cool cups.  Starbucks! Way to bring the sweet and cute back to Valentine’s Day, and thanks for finally introducing the NERD!

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The biggest news that the new CEO, Tim Cook announced today is Siri: the voice assistant. It is described as, “an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done, just by asking.” Sounds kind of weird, huh? But this new feature will allow you to search something in Google, transcribe text messages, set your alarm, schedule appointments in you calendar, plus more–all by talking into your phone. Apple is working with Yelp as well. While demonstrating Siri, Scott Forstall, Apple’s iOS chief asked, “find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto.” The phone says: “I’ve located 14 Greek restaurants. Five are in Palo Alto. I’ve sorted them by rating.” Seems pretty convient. Right now Siri is in beta, but will eventually be available to everyone in English, French and German. With the Android already supporting several voice-recognition features will this make this type of technology more mainstream?

Another big announcement includes new apps called Find my Friends, Reminders and Cards. Find my Friends is similar to Google’s Latitude, but Apple designed it to use with circles of friends and family. There are privacy settings so that you don’t have to worry about people knowing where you are at all times. This app seems ideal for parents who are wanting to keep track of their kids, but we can only imagine how much kids are going to hate it.

In addition to AT&T and Verizon carrying the iPhone, Sprint will now be added to the picture. Sprint may have an upper hand though, the $199 for 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB, and $399 for 64 GB also includes the data plan. That’s right, there will be no extra charges per month for data with Sprint.

Pre orders for the 4S start October 7, and will be available in stores on the 14th.

Are you impressed with the new features or disappointed that was no introduction of the iPhone 5?

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