2016 Year of Mobile Search?

Google believes that searchers want immediate, relevant and frictionless experiences when search results are presented and clicked on. As more and more searches take place on mobile devices, the search can happen anytime and anyplace.

Winning in this environment means we need to have a great mobile strategy, useful content and responsive websites that are optimized for mobile devices.

Be Useful

Google reports that 51% of smartphone users have made a purchase from a different brand than they had intended when the content provided was useful. In addition Google reports 73% of consumers say that regularly receiving useful information in their advertising is one the most important attributes they use in selecting a brand.

However, it may be more important to pay attention to what happens when your site is not useful. Google reports that only 9% of users will stay on a mobile site or app if it doesn’t satisfy their needs. Scarier, still is the fact that 66% may take a negative action based on their experience. Forty percent are less likely to return to your site or use your app and 28% may be less likely to buy products from your company.

So what do we do? Most consumers gravitate toward bite sized, educational content. So avoid the hard sell. Help the consumer chip away at the questions they need to answer on their purchase journey. Helpful information may make or break a sale and it will certainly influence the consumer’s perception of your website.

So start by asking yourself these questions.

What do consumers want to learn about your products?

Are you helping them find your locations?

What are consumers doing with your product or services?

Where are consumer’s buying or using your products or services?

Answering these questions in an immediate, relevant and frictionless way in bite size snippets may just be a winning mobile strategy.