Not Quite the Final Frontier

One of my favorite games to play in my youth was Oregon Trail. Loosely based on the experiences of frontiersmen, this game taught me the meaning of chasing the American dream and the importance of rationing! In a recent article, a columnist pointed how there is no longer a frontier and this has a lot to do with the stalemate in business growth in modern America.

While we can no longer easily exploit natural resources, shear ingenuity has created a new frontier–the web. More recently, millions of savvy net users have been able to access the web at any point using their smart phones. According to the Pew Research Center, over one third (35%) of American adults own a smart phone.  

Smartphone owners use their device in a variety of ways, from searching for the nearest food deals to shopping for a pair of rain boots after stepping into a giant puddle (personal experience). The question is, “Is your mobile site optimized to capitalize on the resources of this new frontier?”

Adhere to traditional SEO practices. For example, optimize your meta description, title tags, content, and alt tags.

Let Google know that you have a mobile site. Create a mobile sitemap and submit it using Google webmaster tools, just like a standard sitemap.

Verify that Google can recognize your mobile URLs.  If it is determined that your web page is not viewable on mobile devices it will not be included in Google’s mobile site index. Check that your URLs are mobile-friendly.

These few steps can ensure that your business is on the frontlines of this new frontier. While this is a great place to begin, there is still much more an advertiser can do to increase the results of mobile SEO. For more information visit Google’s starter guide.