Where are trends in mobile taking mobile web design and mobile SEO?

Along with mobile device upgrades and new application trends, the mobile web industry has been turned upside down, driven by the success of the new generation of smart phones such as the iPhone.

Mobile search is growing rapidly through location based technology and improvements in mobile bandwidth and geographical search results, making it ever more accessible for smart phone users.

User behaviour on the mobile phone is driving the requirements for mobile websites and mobile web applications. Even with limitations in connection speed, screen sizes and bandwidth, users are demanding more ways of communicating on the Web. Even the Search giants are pushing for more optimised mobile search results.

In 2009, one of the biggest growing trends has been the uptake in mobile search. It won't be any different in 2010, in fact, indications are that the trend will continue to grow.

Online businesses should take note
This means that businesses should have a strategy to offer content for both the web user and the mobile user. Mobi sites are nothing new, but how you present your content in mobile format is crucial for its success.

When designing a mobile website, one has to understand that mobile users are completely different from PC users and that mobile searchers are looking for content in a totally different way than searchers through regular searches - they're looking for something in the here and now - they are looking for content “on-the-go”.

For example, users will be looking for contact details or the location of a pizza place, business or bank institution in close proximity to where they are while at the same time search engines will be showing results that are closest to them based on their current location.

The push by search engines to serve up localised mobile search results requires that mobile sites contain local content as well as quick loading pages with useful information, easy for reading and interaction via a mobile device.

It is also a reality that normal web results are currently integrated with mobile search results, making Mobile SEO a crucial part of your strategy should you want to be found online.

Mobile design best practices
So what then are the requirements for a well designed mobile website? When designing a mobile site one has to consider design standards and adhere to best practices for SEO. One must:

• Provide an elegant experience by considering whether individuals possess a smart phone (for example an iPhone with fully featured web browsing) or a standard mobile phone (with stripped site features).
• Consider that phones are not used like PC's - users are usually on the go therefore the site should be more goal-oriented - relevancy and simplicity is key.
• Mobile designs are to conform to the W3C standards in order to create mobile-friendly sites.
• Mobile sites must be small, lightweight and fast-loading.
• Consider user agent detection - a form of transcoding which takes into consideration the type of mobile phone an individual uses to search and provides more uniform browsing experience for various device types.

Mobile SEO best practices
SEO should be part of you mobile strategy should you want to be found, therefore, making sure that you have an optimised mobile site is the next step. The best practices for mobile SEO are:

• Add content on fast-loading pages - content that helps the user find what they want. Keep it simple.
• Use images sparingly and make pages light
• Validate each page via a .Mobi Validator or the W3C Validator
• Following ‘traditional' on-site SEO practices:
  • One keyword per page
  • Optimised Page Title
  • Optimised Meta Description
  • Optimised header (H1) tag and body text
  • Keyword-rich anchor text - internal links
  • Image alternative descriptions
  • Specifically optimise for local business information by adding addresses and phone numbers.
• Submit your business info to local directories making sure your site is verified and included in sites like Google's Local Business Center.
• Make sure the mobile site spidered and indexed by the major search engines via mobile submission.

The most important aspect of mobile SEO is this - make sure that the site is completely usable for all types of mobile visitors. Eliminate any usability issues and give the user the best experience when visiting your site. After all, what is the point of having people find you online, but they cannot interact with your site or use the information on it. Usability is THE key factor to mobile SEO, use it to your advantage.