10 Reasons Why You Need a Mobile Site

With smartphone's taking the majority share in mobile phone usage in America this year, it's easy to see that the future of Web is mobile. No one can afford to ignore it.

Astute advertisers, developers, and brands are creating experiences that connect, convert, and engage their audiences before the mobile revolution consumes them.

Still on the fence regarding whether to make the move to mobile? MarketingProf has provided this list which should obliterate any reasons against putting mobile at the top of your digital must-haves.

Mobile App vs. Mobile Optimization -- Do you know the difference?

We often hear our clients say, “I want a mobile app for my website.”  When we hear this, we immediately start asking questions.  Why do we ask questions?  More often than not what our client really wants is a mobile optimized website.  So, what’s the difference?

 

Mobile App is a term used for a mobile application that is a downloaded program to your mobile device.  Each application is custom written for a specific type of mobile device; iPhone, Android, Windows, Blackberry, and/or iPad.  Once the App is completed, the user would go to the appropriate “store” for their mobile device and download the App to their mobile device.  Apps may be free or there may be a charge for the App.  Things to consider when determining whether or not you want to develop a Mobile App:

·         What is the purpose of your app?

·         What features will the app provide?

·         How many pages will be in the app program?

·         Will the app be free or will there be a charge for its download?

·         How often do you foresee the app being updated?

·         Do you want updates to be automatically pushed out to the user?

·         What different mobile devices do you want your app available on?

Once you have answered these questions and more, an application is submitted to the appropriate mobile device’s governing body, such as Apple for an iPhone.  The governing body reviews the concept for the Mobile App and either approves it or rejects it.  This process may take up to four (4) weeks.  Upon approval, the Mobile App may be developed, tested, and deployed.  As one may gather from this very brief synopsis, the development of a Mobile App is a rather complex process and costs for a Mobile App can range from $15,000 to $100,000+ depending on the complexity of the app and the number of devices it will be presented on.

Mobile Optimization is a term used when your website is optimized for its presentation on a mobile device.  This is also referred to a Mobile Website.  There are two primary ways in which a website may be optimized for a mobile device.  The first is to take an existing website page and reformat it to display on a smaller screen.  This may be done by eliminating graphics and images or reducing the content displayed on the mobile device.  The second way is to custom create mobile pages for critical information that you want easily displayed to the mobile website user.  Things to consider when developing your mobile optimized pages are:

·         Who is your target audience for the mobile access?

·         What is the critical information that your target audience will be looking for on their mobile device?

·         How many pages do you need to mobile optimize?

For the vast majority Mobile Optimization is answer to what is truly needed.  It takes less time to develop and deploy mobile optimized pages and the cost of Mobile Optimization is significantly less than a Mobile App; typically costing in the $3,000 to $7,000 range depending on the complexity and number of pages to be optimized.

For more information, please contact TCG at 304-755-1324 or tcginfo@tcgwedoweb.com or visit us at http://www.terradoncommunications.com/home/Our-Services/Mobile-Apps-Templates.aspx.

5 Ways to Make Your Website Tablet-Friendly

You're seeing tablets more and more: on subways, in planes and in waiting rooms. To ensure you don't miss out during this cultural switch in reading habits, a number of publications have covered ways to ensure your site is tablet-friendly.

We've decided to highlight the tips provided by CIK Marketing, as they're practical and immediately useful. Here are five:

1. Avoid Flash. Adobe's Flash technology doesn't work on Apple mobile devices— and Flash tends to weigh sites down in any case. Substitute flash with HTML5 or JavaScript, which provide the same cool effects.
   
2. Ditch the drop-down menus. Instead, consider a showcase page for different sections of the site, better enabling tablet users to find all available subpages. If you want to keep your drop-down menus, create visual cues (like arrows) that show users the menu can be opened and expanded.
3. Design for touch interaction. Tablet users aren't clicking or scrolling with a mouse, so design buttons the size of a fingertip instead of a cursor. Links placed too closely together will also frustrate users; remember that touching and swiping are the gestures to design for these days.
4. Choose colors, textures and typography wisely. Bright background colors and patterns reduce the appearance of glare or smudges on an iPad or Blackberry Playbook. Avoid solid blacks that look like un-textured voids. Ensure your font isn't too large or too small for tablet navigation. When in doubt, test on a tablet or two.
5. Design forms to fit. Many company sites require users to fill out a form. Look yours over and ensure all fields are clear and easily accessible to tablet users. Avoid including too many fields, as longer forms on tablets are frustrating.

The Point: Think flat and touchy. The reading-and-browsing world is moving further in the direction of tablets, making it crucial that your site experience be as seamless there as it is anywhere else. A few tweaks could be all you need to ensure compatibility.

Source: MarketingProfs 

Small Businesses Gearing Up for Mobile Marketing - Slowly

Small businesses that were early adopters of mobile marketing have begun to earn tangible returns on their mobile investments, according to a study by Web.com. Even so, most small businesses haven't embraced mobile marketing yet.

Among surveyed owners of small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees), fully six in ten (60%) have a Web presence, but few have a mobile Web presence:

·  26% have a mobile-friendly website (the same layout and content as standard site adjusted to suit a smartphone screen).

·  14% have a stand-alone mobile website (content and layout designed specifically for mobile purposes). 

Even so, more than two-thirds (69%) of small business owners strongly agree (39%) or agree (30%) that mobile marketing is crucial to their growth over the next five years.

Moreover, among those 14% of small business owners with a mobile presence, 84% say they have generated increases in new business activity due to their mobile marketing efforts. 

Additional findings from Web.com's Small Business Mobile Survey, conducted by Lab42 Market Research:

Mobile search strategies are lacking

Despite rapid increases in mobile search volumes, 61% of small businesses do not have a mobile search strategy (in order to be found via mobile device).

The biggest hurdle to mobile is limited time and resources

Time and resource limitations (36%) and lack of budget (31%) are the top two hurdles that prevent small businesses from moving forward with mobile.

Moreover, 64% of small business owners are acting as their one-person marketing team—in addition to running other aspects of their business.

However, mobile budgets are on the rise: 64% of small business owners say they plan to spend more on mobile marketing in 2012, 33% plan to spend the same amount, and 3% plan to spend less on mobile marketing in 2012.

The greatest motivation for mobile is providing better service to existing customers

Asked to rank their motivations for investing in mobile marketing, small business owners cite the following top three: 

·  Provide better service to existing customers: 38%

·  Attract more local customers: 36%

·  Gain a competitive advantage: 34% 

 
About the data: This survey was conducted online via social networks, April 5- 12, 2012, among 500 owners of small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees).

Read more: MarketingProfs

3 Backlinking Mistakes to Avoid

A strong SEO program relies on backlinks—links to your website from external sources. "Those backlinks signal to search engines how influential and relevant your business is online," writes Chris Sheehy in an article at MarketingProfs. They "trigger local citations of your business and aid in deepening your local market penetration," he notes.

In other words, backlinks enhance your online visibility and give you an edge on the competition.

But what if you're not getting the backlinks you expect? What's going wrong? Sheehy suggests you could be making mistakes like these:

You assume backlinks will simply appear. The hard reality is that you must work for each and every link. "Businesses have to commit to the notion that just as they have to be on the hunt for their next customer, so too do they need to be vigilant with their online linking," he says.

You pursue backlinks sporadically. While the occasional flood of new links might yield good short-term results, you're better off with a consistent slow-and-steady approach that demonstrates sustained value to search engines. An hour a day "keeps the competitors away," Sheehy quips.

You're trying to game the system. Some SEO practitioners use "black hat" techniques that often improve rankings—until they're caught and the site plummets to the tenth page of results, or worse. If you stick to "white hat" techniques—those sanctioned by search engines—you'll do much better in the long run..

Thus: Don't back down from your backlinking efforts. In an ideal world, people who love your product or service would automatically link to your website; in the real world, they need ongoing encouragement to do so.

Source: MarketingProfs.

LinkedIn 4X's Better for B2B

Among three leading social networking platforms—LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook—LinkedIn is the most effective source of leads for B2B companies, according to data from HubSpot.

 

In a study of 3,128 HubSpot B2B customers in 2011, LinkedIn generated a visitor-to-lead conversion rate of 2.60%, on average. That's four times higher than the average visitor-to-lead rate for Twitter (0.67%) and seven times higher than the average rate for Facebook (0.39%).

Moreover, LinkedIn is growing faster than Twitter and Facebook. Though LinkedIn now ranks behind Twitter and Facebook in monthly user activity, LinkedIn is growing at a much faster rate than both social networks, according to separate research from Compete.  LinkedIn attracted some 28.1 million unique visitors in March 2012, up 7.3% from 26.2 million in February, and up 60.7% from 17.5 million one year earlier.

By contrast, Twitter attracted 42.0 million unique visitors Twitter in March, up 35.5% from 31.0 million visitors a year earlier. Facebook attracted 169.9 million visitors in March, up 20.7% from 140.7 million a year earlier.

About the data: Findings are based on data from 3,128 B2B HubSpot customers that generated traffic and leads from social media in 2011, collected via the HubSpot system.

Source: MarketingProfs

What Every New Business Should Know About Google's Ranking of Names

TCG likes to share articles of interest related to the ever changing Web world ...

Google reputation management has long become one of the most important online marketing niches. It doesn't matter whether your brand is online or not; it will be Googled.

So, before you choose your brand name, you should understand the following three major facts about how Google rates and ranks personal and business names.

 

1. Some searches have an "obvious" result

Some search queries leave almost no doubt about what a Web searcher is looking for.

Based on leaked information about Google's rating guidelines, Google distinguishes among the following three types of possible search query interpretation:

That said, in some cases, even when a word has several possible meanings (and the user's intent is not clear), Google won't suggest a choice. The entire first page of search results will be dominated by one meaning of the word.

So, before you pick a particular brand term, check whether any "obvious" search results for your brand keyword exist. It is easy: Just run a quick search of a word you are planning to brand yourself with. If you find "dominant interpretation" for that search query, the first page of search results will be stacked with that meaning, as in the case of "apple":

You don't want to start a business to later find out there's no way to rank in the top 10 results for your own business name. A company named "Apple Vacations" will not rank for the word "apple," as the previous example illustrates.

2. 'Generally-known' does not mean 'obvious' (or 'dominant')

Some brands managed to turn very generic words into brand-specific queries. You won't see any fruit-related search results for a search of the term "apple," and you will not see any mention of the river when searching for "Amazon." So, no matter how obviously biased some results are, general knowledge does not really influence search results.

Even when a search term has no obviously dominant result, Google won't always focus on a better-known (or likelier) search result.

In other words, common interpretation will not necessarily rank higher than minor interpretation (especially if the latter is a brand name).

Here's an example: What's your instant association with the name Armstrong? Tour de France? Space? Moon?

The truth is, Google thinks neither Neil nor Lance Armstrong are what you are really searching for. Instead, it's much more probable that you are searching for flooring or ceiling products, pumps, or Armstrong Atlantic State University Savannah.

That's a good example of search results' giving you a not-so-obvious choice (because your initial intent is unclear).

But even if Google can't know what you are searching for, why does it bump weird results to the top of the page when the other two results are more obvious?

That's possibly because Google seems to favor brands and is likelier to suspect that your intent is navigational instead of informational (go instead of know).

When no dominant interpretation exists for a keyword, getting ranked in most SERPs is easier than you might think. All you need is to build a strong brand name.
 

3. Make your name and brand name stick together

You don't need to be a celebrity to become a dominant search result for your name in Google. All you need is a unique name.

However, though you may be unlucky enough to have the name of a celebrity or a common English name that may have hundreds of possible interpretations, you still want to rank on page one and promote your personal brand without creating an online moniker.

Google suggests one solution: Make your name and your brand name stick together, and you instantly become a dominant interpretation.
 

The following is from the aforementioned Google rating guidelines:

For example, Dave Jones is a common English name, and the query "dave jones" [English (UK)] can have no vital result because Google doesn't know which Dave Jones the user wants. However, the very specific query "dave jones codemonkey" [English (UK)] does have a clear dominant interpretation.

 

Picking your brand name is crucial, and it may take months to find a proper name for an emerging business. Making it Google-friendly is one of the most important criteria of a brand name now that everything is being "googled." So, before naming your business, search—a lot!

by Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is a search and social enthusiast and professional blogger. One of her recent major projects is MyBlogGuest, a free platform connecting blog owners to guest authors for mutual benefit.