You’ve probably been hearing for a few years now that whatever year is was, that was going to be the year of mobile.  While it’s not clear what year was “the year of mobile”, it indeed the case that mobile has bigger impact on many aspects of marketing year after year and it seems that this impact has been more incremental each year and there was no one year when mobile was going to hit with a bang.  However, there has been a great deal of activity so far in 2015 that would suggest that it’s going to be a significant year for mobile and it’s impact on your business.

In many verticals and markets, mobile has become the first screen of interaction that a consumer has with a business or brand, but this shift is even being seen in the B2B markets.  Mobile needs to be considered as a vital part of a overall business strategy for any business going forward as the the way people research and consume content continues to shift to mobile screens.  In the first US-Mobile-Path-to-Purchasequarter of 2015, it was reported that 46% of all traffic originated on a mobile device, up from 44% in the previous quarter.  So for all practical purposes, we’ve reached parity between traffic from mobile and desktops.  While, mobile transactions still lag behind desktop, the fact that we’ve reached parity makes it clear that mobile must be a consideration for every business as they look at how their customers research or may experience their brand or business.  It’s certainly worth looking at the mobile experience a brand or business offers to potential customers.

There have also been several announcements so far in 2015 that, at first, may appear unrelated, but the connection becomes clear as we consider the increasing role mobile plays.

The biggest announcement was, of course, the algorithm change on Google that goes into effect on April 21.  The algorithm will only apply to searches done on mobile phones and will give an SEO advantage to websites that are mobile optimized over websites that are not.  This change has been a source of panic for many website owners.  It’s hard to say what the larger ramifications will be for website owners that are not mobile optimized and calmer voices should prevail rather than knee-jerk reactions.  Although, a lesson here is that, if your website is not currently optimized for mobile, all the points in this blog post should strongly support a plan to do so in the near future.  Just the fact half of all online traffic originates from mobile devices should support a short term plan to get your site optimized for mobile.

Another related announcement is that Google will also begin changing the way your website URL will look on mobile searches. This is yet another indication of the position that Google is taking on mobile.

As a Google Partner Agency, we are also seeing a great deal of emphasis being put on Partner Agencies helping businesses prepare for mobile search through several programs being launched for Partner Agencies.

First is a great deal of information and several interactive tools created by Google to help businesses learn about mobile and do their own research to see how the mobile connected consumer may be impacting their business and what they can do to better position their business or brand for the mobile consumer.

 

The first interactive tool from Google is the Consumer Barometer which allows you to gain an understanding of the behavior and activities of consumers in a multi-channel world heavily influenced by mobile devices.

The second interactive tool from Google will let you explore and conduct you own research to gain an understanding of the connected consumers purchase journey and the impact mobile has on it.  Both of these tools, as well as many others, were created by Google for the same reason we share them with you.  We want to give you the information so you can do your own research and make your own discoveries about the impact of mobile on your business.

As a Google Partner Agency and official Google City Partner for Minneapolis, we’re here to be a resource for your business in all aspects of your planning and execution needs when it comes to digital and mobile.  Our next live Google event will be on May 14th, see this blog post for more information and to register for the event.

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The LTR Digital Sherpa