Introduction

Seeing the dreaded "Page cannot be found" error while searching the Web on your cell phone is like turning onto a dead-end street. It can be frustrating and time consuming, creating a poor impression for Mobile Web users.

Last month's article discussed the process of Mobile Web Optimization (link to article). But what good is it to have a nice looking site when no one can find you? When optimizing your site for the Mobile Web, be sure to include Mobile Search Optimization.

The Definition

Mobile Search Optimization (MSO) is the process of making your site accessible to those searching for you on mobile devices by:

• optimizing it specifically for the mobile search query
• getting it to the mobile search engine results pages

The Explanation

Mobile search engines Yahoo! Mobile and Google Mobile differ in how they index and rank their search engine results pages (SERPs). A recent Internet marketing survey revealed that the SERPs varied widely according to each mobile device, meaning different users see different results.

For example, an older device will display a results page created from Google's WML engine, allowing the user to search for Web, Mobile Web, Images, and News content separately. A newer device uses Google's advanced XHTML engine, which displays a combined results page.

The Strategy

You can use the results of this study to develop an MSO strategy. We suggest the following:

1. Focus on universal and local content distribution. Remember that a typical mobile SERP starts with paid search advertising, local business listings, images, and then Web content, before mobile Web content joins the team. Feeding your content to these channels increases your ranking on the SERP. Don't forget YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Reader, and other Web applications with mobile channels.
2. Develop and optimize a separate mobile Web site.
3. Validate your site. Without validation, a user can have excellent directions, a cutting-edge GPS, and still run into that ominous dead-end error message. W3C offers an HTML validator and Mobile Web validator.