1.5 billion mobile handsets sold in 2011, nearly one third are smartphones. Nokia is still top dog for handsets, but Samsung and Apple sold more smartphones.
Submitted by Amy Mischler, dotMobi (not verified) on 4 December, 2008 - 21:33.
Sadir, you’re very right in that the TLD or zone file entry is not the whole solution to mobile search. But it does serve as your entry ticket. In other words, it’s the ante but not the full bet. The zone file entry means that you’re considered for the crawl whereas what you do with SEO impacts your positioning after you’ve been considered. Our best practice recommendations are about mobile site “findability” – one of the key challenges for any mobile site. As you know, mobile search has some fundamental differences from PC search and SEO. Firstly, the mobile web is very poorly linked. Because of their limited real estate, most mobile sites don’t consume highly valuable space with links. Auto-detection is another complicating factor for site crawlers. But our recommendations for what is a complicated issue are simple:
1. Use your .mobi for two reasons. Firstly, you will get that unique zone file entry to make sure you’re considered and included in search. Secondly, it provides for a short and easy name for users to recognize and differentiate from your PC site. It’s simply more consumer-friendly.
2. Work mobile SEO! Make sure that you have all of the popular search engine site maps and that your relevant keywords are there.
3. Use auto-detection. Most people will go for the name that they know and that might be a .com, a .co.uk, a .de, a .org, a .net, or some other TLD. Auto-detection helps satisfy their need to do this. It is one of the reasons that dotMobi provides DeviceAtlas – it will help you quickly and painlessly perform auto-detection.
4. Provide a mechanism for users to easily switch between the PC and mobile versions. Links or icons are great examples of these mechanisms and provides the consumer with choice if they’ve found one version and intended to find the other. mobiForge provides switching icons for free download at http://www.mobiforge.com/designers/page/mobile-and-desktop-switching-ico...
5. Finally, in addition to .mobi, it makes sense to cover your bases with other popular mobile naming conventions. Again, if someone goes to the pain of typing it into an address bar, you will want to satisfy their request. The ones that you should cover based upon popularity are wap., mobile., and m. Use your .mobi as your primary site and make sure these other designations redirect to that content. Owning a .mobi address is typically around $10 per year and an inexpensive entry ticket to mobile findability.
Sadir, you’re very right in that the TLD or zone file entry is not the whole solution to mobile search. But it does serve as your entry ticket. In other words, it’s the ante but not the full bet. The zone file entry means that you’re considered for the crawl whereas what you do with SEO impacts your positioning after you’ve been considered. Our best practice recommendations are about mobile site “findability” – one of the key challenges for any mobile site. As you know, mobile search has some fundamental differences from PC search and SEO. Firstly, the mobile web is very poorly linked. Because of their limited real estate, most mobile sites don’t consume highly valuable space with links. Auto-detection is another complicating factor for site crawlers. But our recommendations for what is a complicated issue are simple:
1. Use your .mobi for two reasons. Firstly, you will get that unique zone file entry to make sure you’re considered and included in search. Secondly, it provides for a short and easy name for users to recognize and differentiate from your PC site. It’s simply more consumer-friendly.
2. Work mobile SEO! Make sure that you have all of the popular search engine site maps and that your relevant keywords are there.
3. Use auto-detection. Most people will go for the name that they know and that might be a .com, a .co.uk, a .de, a .org, a .net, or some other TLD. Auto-detection helps satisfy their need to do this. It is one of the reasons that dotMobi provides DeviceAtlas – it will help you quickly and painlessly perform auto-detection.
4. Provide a mechanism for users to easily switch between the PC and mobile versions. Links or icons are great examples of these mechanisms and provides the consumer with choice if they’ve found one version and intended to find the other. mobiForge provides switching icons for free download at http://www.mobiforge.com/designers/page/mobile-and-desktop-switching-ico...
5. Finally, in addition to .mobi, it makes sense to cover your bases with other popular mobile naming conventions. Again, if someone goes to the pain of typing it into an address bar, you will want to satisfy their request. The ones that you should cover based upon popularity are wap., mobile., and m. Use your .mobi as your primary site and make sure these other designations redirect to that content. Owning a .mobi address is typically around $10 per year and an inexpensive entry ticket to mobile findability.
Hope this clarifies.