Mobile is going to be one of the most important things your company will need to master in 2015, so now is the time to start putting a game-plan together of things you’re going to improve, what you’re going to add to your mobile presence, and how you’re going to make it all happen. If you’re not convinced, according to eMarketer local mobile searches (85.9 billion in 2013) are projected to exceed desktop searches (84 billion) for the first time in 2015.
As overwhelming as it may seem, mobile can actually be a pretty simple task once you have a few of the big items out of the way. It takes management and creativity, but from my experiences, most marketers have fun with mobile optimization and planning. It’s the way search is moving, but you still have a lot of room to be original.
Get the Basics in Order and Review
Before you can even start thinking about how your mobile strategy will shift in 2015, you have to actually have a basic mobile strategy in place. If you don’t have a mobile website or layout ready to go, visit this webpage from Google to learn some of the basics and get started. In general, this will include having a responsive web design, checking the font sizes and placement of your clickable links, and optimizing your images to fit a mobile or tablet screen and have an appropriate load time.
A Checklist of Things to Add to Your Mobile Strategy in 2015
Once you have the basics in place, you need to start getting advanced this year and adding new features and options to your mobile website if you want to keep up with the competition. Use this checklist to help you get started:
Things to Do
- Use keywords in your mobile content.
- Publish more local-focused content.
- A/B test your mobile landing page.
- Check that your mobile pages match your desktop pages.
- Consider creating a mobile app.
- Configure your site for other devices. This essentially means you should make sure your site is also friendly on tablets and feature phones.
Things to Check
- Your mobile redirects.
- Your canonical tags.
- Your mobile XML sitemap.
Of course, each of these tasks deserves their own article and explanation to make happen. Talk with your developers and do some of your own research, but by and large you’re going to find detailed descriptions of everything you need from Google here.
The Takeaway
Ultimately, we can’t deny the fact that working with a developer is going to be extremely helpful. While you can get started with mobile even with an elementary understanding of website development, getting advanced is going to take someone who really knows their stuff. I would recommend finding a great website developer and establishing that relationship now so that your mobile website can be ready to go when you need it (which, well, is now). You can also check out this article for more 2015 mobile statistics.
Do you have anything else you would add to the mobile checklist above? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.