Mobile SEO

Google analytics, how to mobile search .... please help with our survey

Please take part and help us with these polls - I will publish all the results. Some of them allow more than one response - I really appreciate your feedback.

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

Online Surveys & Market Research

Working Group for Mobile SEO Standard new page

Still not finished but improvements to the metaTXT site are underway - for example one new page is:

http://www.metatxt.org/workinggroup.html

Over the fence

Being a blogger is great  but suddenly being interviewed and "on the other side" is a crazy crazy experience.

I would like to thank Telecom Asia (and other Asian magazine), Gartner, Charged and bnet.tv for the interviews yesterday - I found them really hard!

It is actually an eye opening experience being interviewed and its so easy to assume that people know what you mean... I hope I don't sound silly ... but what an amazing day!

Everyone that I spoke to "got it" a couple said "why isn't Google on board?" Others said, "wow, finally something different" and "very innovative".

But what they actually write about us will be a great experience too. I am even more amazed at how some people will be negative about something just for "the story" -but perhaps that is what gets the hits?

So to answer the branded mobile search question and why isn't Google involved? The answer is "I hope they will be". But our focus was to start with white label mobile search engines and move to the branded ones.

Many brands and companies have expressed interest in metaTXT and have said get some more people and we will join too - or show us that this is interesting. I think because there is so much confusion in the mobile space and anything new is approached with gloves on.

But all in all I feel positive. It is still very early days and the tools and services and websites are still in the "nearly there" phase - it has been tough for all of us but we are getting there!

metaTXT, the World's First Mobile Search Engine Optimisation Standard Launched at Mobile Asia Congress

Press release for the first companies to join the metaTXT working group is below - the changes to the metatxt.org site  and visibilitymobile site and another release on gomobileseo - are coming..!

19th November 2008, Macau: Today ten of the most innovative mobile companies are partnering to drive the metaTXT standard. metaTXT is the world's first mobile search engine optimisation (SEO) standard. metaTXT will enable search engines to index mobile sites at ease regardless of their technology domains whether they are m.name.com, wap.name.com, name.com/mobile or a .mobi. 

The metaTXT standard is a pioneering enhancement for mobile search by allowing all mobile sites to be discovered regardless of URL, giving brands better and more consistent mobile internet awareness.  The group has a strong Asian presence, working with Asian search engine MCN (www.MCN-inc.com) to leverage its mobile capabilities to its 15 million users.   

Leading mobile advertising providers and search engines including Abphone, Bango, JumpTap, Taptu, MCN, Medio Systems, Mobilytics, Nubiq, RingRing Media and founder visibility mobile are working group partners.   

Already one thousand mobile sites are using metaTXT when the standard is deployed by the working group - reach will be near 200 million. 

Mícheál Ó Foghlú, Chairman of the metaTXT working group, said, "There remains some hesitation in the market about one Web and the mobile Internet. We are carving out ways where we can all work together to achieve excellence for the Mobile Web – driven by an open standard.  The independence we offer as one of Ireland's leading ICT research centre is such to ensure that all major brands and search engines have given metaTXT a warm welcome."

metaTXT (www.metatxt.org) is a free standard - available for anyone. The simple step by step tool for the service is available at http://www.metatxt.org/Whitepaper_On_MetaTXT.pdf   or more information is available on the blog www.mobileseonews.com 

Gartner predicts that mobile search will be worth USD 12 billion by 2013, demonstrating the enormous potential of the mobile SEO ecosystem.   

"Mobile websites are currently not being effectively interrogated by conventional search engines," said Paul Savage, CEO of Visibility Mobile. "This is leaving brands incredibly frustrated and is restricting the vast range of commercial opportunities that both mobile advertising and the mobile web as a whole can deliver."   

"We are very excited about the launch of this service as it will be a unique opportunity for Zinadoo customers to promote their own mobile web presence," said Hélène Haughney, CEO of Nubiq. "Zinadoo customers will now not only receive a fully customised mobile website, but also a professional SEO service that will improve their search rankings and site visits." 

- Ends - 

About metaTXT

Metatxt is a new industry standard powered from the Waterford Institure of Technologies research division. The standard for mobile search engines and mobile sites will ensure that ALL mobile sites are discovered by mobile search engines. 

For more information see www.wit.ie 

About Visibility Mobile

Visibility mobile is a professional services business providing stellar mobile search engine optimisation services to brands in the mobile space. Early adopters of our services include the media industry and multi-nationals that want to empower their presence in the mobile space: http://www.visibilitymobile.com/home.html

For more information, please contact:

visibility mobile

Sinead Quealy

Tel:   +353 86 ...
Fax: +353 51 845 697

Email: sinead@visibilitymobile.com 

CCgroup

Daniel Lowther

Tel:  +44 77 4...
Email: daniel.lowther@the-cc-group.com

Ten super companies backing metaTXT

I am just working with our PR agency to tweak the press release for the metaTXT working group - which  will go live in Macau this week.

Then it dawned on me that some additional clarification might be needed so here goes.

1. metaTXT is a free non-profit standard driven by the WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology)

2. visibility mobile plus nine others have joined the initial metaTXT group (announcements this week) to make all mobile sites discoverable.

3. visibility mobile is a professional services company with a suite of technology that will go in to Beta shortly. Our main aim is to provide professional services for brands but we will also sell technology solutions that drive mobile SEO.

4. visibility mobile's early clients include several key brands in the mobile entertainment and mobile media space. We are behind several local mobile social media strategies as well as six different global real time mobile SEO deployments.

Release Week visibility mobile

Next week we take visibility mobile into a completely new level.

So far, we have a consultancy and are helping the WIT (Waterford Institute of Technology) make metaTXT a standard. The standard is a free service driven standard aimed at supporting the mobile web and helping to ensure that all mobile sites are visible for mobile search engines.

But from next week the visibility mobile business model will start to be revealed. Many people have asked me what the business model is and have been frustrated with my “it’s coming” response. But, as you know any small business needs a compelling business solution and this is what we are developing.

Basically it’s a pure Mobile SEO tool. What does that mean?

Well it will provide a way to optimise your mobile site. It’s very simple and easy to use and complies by current standards and basically will make sure that whatever your site URL;it will be found by search engines.  You supply the basic data and we do the rest in making your site a hot property on the mobile web – ensuring that your brand is found.

Prices for the tool and everything else will be revealed next week. I am leaving for Macau in a couple of hours and will be there all week.

Get a free iPhone demo of metaTXT next week in Macau at the GoMo News CC Group party!

Get a free iPhone demo of metaTXT next week in Macau at the GoMo News CC Group party!

If you are in Mobile Asia Congress next week in Macau – head down to our party on:

19th November 2008 – MacSorleys Irish Pub in the Venetian hotel (where the Congress is) after the event so from about 5.30pm.

The drinks sponsored by the CC Group and some pens or t-shirts from me!

Mobile SEO is all go!

I have had a great few days.  The interest in mobile SEO is growing and I feel that some some key companies and brands are "getting it".

Getting what?

Well - getting that Mobile SEO is vital. It is an important part of the mobile web and organic traffic is critical to all brands.

We have about ten great names signed up to the MetaTXT working group... I am very very excited about next week in Macau when the first members of the working group will be announced.

That is not everyone that has joined (for example individuals) but a list of early thought leader brands in the mobile space.

Our first BETA product will be announced and also we have a huge (no MEGA) first partnership for our new services.

I feel we have the expertise, especially our CEO Niall Cusack ..... I can't wait to showcase the Beta launch.

A huge thank you to everyone that is supporting us at this early stage, including the Waterford Institute of Technology for driving metaTXT.

A list of how to optimise your .com site will be up soon!

MetaTXT Working Group by Sinead Quealy

visibility mobile Towers has the builders in.  We’re preparing for a visit from our President next week.  Bena is a perfectionist and we like to have the place looking its best when she arrives.  We’ve added a sun room!

Bena is coming over to review our progress on our Macau plans – publicity, product, websites and Working Group.

All are going according to plan, especially our Waterford Institute of Technology MetaTXT Working Group! Chaired by Micheal O’Foghlu  - Executive Director of Research at the TSSG - it is administered by me and has a number of members from the Mobile Internet industry so far!  A few search engines, some analytics experts and exciting site creation people too.  Our Group is determined that MetaTXT will grow, develop and respond to the Industry’s search needs.  We are confident that by combining the skills, experience and requirements of a number of stakeholders in the Mobile Internet, we will create the best and most usable standard for Mobile Internet Search. 

This is an exciting time.  We are at the begining of a massive opportunity to greatly improve people’s search experience on the Mobile Internet.  Yes there is money to be made by brands, device manufacturers, service providers etc., but the most exciting part is that we are creating something new.........and it rocks!!!

Mashable Open Web Awards - please vote

When I am not writing on GoMo or doing SEO I find myself blogging and reading other things! So Mashable invited GoMo to take part in its Open Web Awards competition. I would be greatful if you like mobile seo or visibility mobile if you vote for us in the Search or Social Search section or GoMo News in the Social News section. Thank-you! Bena

Five ways to optimise your m.name.com mobile brand

OK. Lets start from the very beginning, cause that’s a great place to start. When you read you begin with ABC and when you do mobile SEO you start with .......

I love customers, but sometimes you really don’t need my expert skills – forgetting my Julie Andrews Sound of Music moment above I am going to highlight some very simple steps for optimising your m.name.com mobile site.

Again – this is for beginners and these are steps necessary BEFORE you even get to keywords or site content. Those answers will come in step 2.

1. Choose a simple name for your mobile site as the m. Itself can be cumbersome to type. If you can shorten your existing URL to letters (Marks and Spenser becomes MandS) it would be great.

2. Make sure you know what a cache is and then make sure you add a cache:
Meta tag cache control detected
Content="no-cache" /> <meta http-equiv="*******" cont

This is how it should be formatted but “no-cache” is wrong. Latency remains an issue on mobile particular GPRS – so the faster your site downloads the more likely people will read it and not get frustrated waiting.

3. If you are in any doubt about meta tags or meta data – please insert MetaTXT (www.metatxt.org) into your mobile site and that will do all the hard work for you. For example if you have more than one mobile site and you have both a mobi and a m.name.com – metaTXT will sort out which consumer or user goes to the right place.

This is particuar important to avoid what we at visibility mobile call "meta spam". I will have to write something up on that later. But meta spam is tied with another issue called "keyword overload" in mobile content sites and mobile social networks this issue is huge.

4. Adhere to correct HTML, Standards, MIME tags. This line of code is vital and it goes at the VERY TOP of the style sheet (not underneath the HTMLcode – but above it).  I am sure I don’t need to say that just having it is not enough – adhere to it and all standards!  This often means going in with a magnifying glass to check the linear language.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

5. Specify image sizes for mobile devices – this is a clear and constant hiccup for brands. If the images are right the “Alt” tags can be used for more targeted optimisation of the site. So the right size, the image and style make a huge difference.

So in short: think short name, think caching for latency, think MIME and when you think of  Meta think of metaTXT. Lastly images (yikes I forgot to mention tables - but wait for some more tips).

Five idiot proof ways to Mobile Search Engine Optimise (Mobile SEO) your mobi site

Here is my no brainer list of how to instantly optimize (Mobile SEO) a .mobi site for beginners.

1. This is very important. If you have created your mobile site using a free tool or website creation service and then bought your dotmobi name separately. Contact your website creation company for its IP address so you can map the domain instead of forwarding it.

2. Create a simple site without using any type of frames.

3. Sometimes it is best to create a couple of sites in different languages and to point to search engines and users to them via metaTXT than to insert code to re-direct your site to different destinations. Re-direction can make a mobile site slow and often makes it harder for search engines to find correct mobile destinations. 

4. Submit your site to mobile search engines – such as Mobiseer or Find.mobi – MCN, Medio, Jumptap or your images to Abphone or video to Truveo.

5. Use your “Alt-Tags” in images for extra-keyword possibilities.  But if you use images – be careful and make sure you follow the MMA guidelines on image specifics.

In short – avoid forwarding of any kind.
Submit to pure mobile search engines
Ensure that no frames are present on the mobile site
Add metaTXT (www.metatxt.org or www.gomobileseo.com)

Go Mobile SEO! gomobileseo.com

Those of you looking very carefully will start seeing some huge changes on the GoMobileSEO.com site in the run up to Asia Mobile Congress. Keep your eyes open for some great new features - client wins and other information from visibility mobile.

Future Internet by Sinead Quealy

Future Internet and Mobile SEO

It’s OK!  Please relax!  I’m back!

We have been working very hard here in visibility mobile for the last month, organizing our Working Group, developing additional features for our on line SEO service and attending hugely important conferences.

I’ll do a separate report on the Working Group and Niall will report on our next launch shortly but I’m dedicating this blog to the most recent conference.  The conference - The Future Internet - was hosted by the TSSG, http://www.futureinternet.ie/FutureInternet/index.html.  Normally we would make visibility mobile Towers available for such events, but it was decided to help Dublin out during this credit crunch, so we brought the gig to the capital.

It was a fantastic success with academics, policy makers, industry leaders, developers and engineers of every code and continent represented. Among the speakers was Micheal O’Foghlu of the TSSG, chairman of our Waterford Institute of Technology/visibility mobile Working Group.  visibility mobile demonstrated our MetaTXT file generator to the usual impressed gasps.

The gathered intellects and I were there to discuss the shape of and the challenges faced by the Internet of the future.  All presentations made reference to Mobile – network, devices, applications etc.  It is clear that Mobile Internet is going to grow and become a force to be reckoned with.  visibilty mobile will help make sites and brands visibile in the growing space using special Mobile SEO techniques.

Bena will be back in Ireland next week and we will both be presenting our services to several potential clients following on from this really successful day...