By Andrew Rayner

Apple raised the bar when they introduced the first iPhone. They created explosive growth in the use of smart phones (iPhone or otherwise) and a step change in the way consumers could interact with the internet on the move... Since then it is predicted that by 2013 over 35% of all searches will be done on a mobile device – that’s either incredible growth in search, or, a massive transition from PC to mobile browsers.

Businesses need to wake up to the fact that mobile search marketing is here to stay and that they must focus on a mobile search marketing strategy.

What should your search marketing strategy include to ride the mobile wave?

One approach is to “go local” with your internet marketing... Why? Well, mobiles often assume a location to search, and, using geo-location techniques, mobile search more often than not returns local results. To capitalise on this your business needs a search marketing strategy that encompasses both traditional SEO and local internet marketing...

As we’ve acknowledged, approaching 35% of search will be done on a mobile device. Today it is estimated that over 3 billion searches are requested of Google daily. With mobiles increasingly returning local search results this means that Google alone could easily return a phenomenal 1 billion local search results to mobile browsers, daily, by 2013!

How can businesses take advantage of this shift in search behaviour?

Today if you search Google on your standard web browser for a product or service and add “in [your location]” to the search, you could be presented with an attention-grabbing map to and a list of businesses relevant to your search, the location of each also identified on the map. That models what you’d get if you were searching ONLY for the product or service on a mobile browser that understood, using geo-location, exactly where you were.

What you are seeing is Google’s choice of the most relevant listings from Google Places. If you click on “Maps” you may discover that beyond the 3-7 local results presented on the first page many hundreds, sometimes thousands, of listings exist relating to that product or service within a reasonable distance of the specified location.

How do those select few achieve the page 1 position?

Basically it is down to the same sort of assessment criteria Google use in determining which websites are top of any search – that is relevancy.

Having a well optimised Google Places listing is like having a web page that appears at the top of Google for the search phrases used by people looking for what you offer, in your area.

It’s also rapid, in that the listing owner can make changes to target product, brand or topical search terms relevant to the current target market, and within hours they will be live, meaning that you can be relevant for different searches at different times in line with trends and seasonality!

What is the impact likely to be?

Businesses that take advantage of this shift in behaviour will be able to get ahead of the competition. The impact is likely to be a massive increase in the number of searches they appear in (impressions) and the subsequent click throughs / contacts made to their business. Extrapolating the benefit, business could quite literally leap-frog their competition at the local level if they take advantage of the opportunity now, before it becomes saturated and heavily contested.

Sound too good to be true?

Possibly – to make this work reliably you need skills and experience in both traditional SEO techniques and in running PPC campaigns. For GPO to be really effective these skills need to be married together, and that is what e-mphasis does. The beauty is that GPO complements your existing SEO / PPC marketing, potentially reducing PPC spend, and informing the SEO analysts about which phrases get you seen, and, the proportion of click throughs...

So what now?

Google Places Optimisation enables businesses to drill-down internet marketing to the lucrative and untapped potential of the local customer. Google Places Optimisation is the key to getting found in an increasingly crowded marketplace, whilst leveraging the increasing use of mobile browsers for search. Businesses that achieve this will be well positioned to steal the march on their competition, particularly those who have not yet embraced the importance of optimisation at the local level.

Consider this; global is simply the sum of many, many locals...

About the author

Andrew Rayner is director at e-mphasis.com, an internet marketing agency specialising in providing Search Marketing and Social Media Marketing for clients whose customers are consumers – specifically those in retail, travel, hospitality & leisure. The company is based in St Albans, Hertfordshire and was founded by Andrew Rayner. Andrew and the team at e-mphasis have recently developed a unique offering – Google Places Optimisation, which unlike high cost PPC campaigns, puts their clients onto page 1 of Google for a fixed monthly fee. This is currently being trialed by Tesco Phone Shops, and is presenting some great results! This highly targeted approach to Internet Marketing is a hugely untapped area of online marketing strategy and one which, thanks to e-mphasis, is now beginning to generate interest and excitement from other major UK retail brands.