MAJORITY. Developments in Mobile and App Search Optimisation. BEA PATMAN, HEAD OF SEO. 2 www.greenlightdigital.com | +44
THE MOBILE MAJORITY
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Developments in Mobile and App Search Optimisation
THE MOBILE MAJORITY BEA PATMAN, HEAD OF SEO
SEO loves its tropes; if we’re not insisting for the thousandth time that ‘content is king’, we’re predicting that next year really will be ‘the year of mobile’. We’ve become so accustomed to heralding in each new year with this particular forecast that it feels a bit strange to be calling an end to the tradition. But do so I must, because here’s the thing – I think The Year of Mobile just happened. 2
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Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence for this is
I think that this consistent focus on mobile experience
‘Mobilegeddon’; the delightfully melodramatic
has been responsible for stimulating a somewhat
nickname given to Google’s mobile-friendly update
subtler transition in the way that brands treat their
in April 2015. It’s rare that industry news makes
mobile propositions, too. For the past few years we’ve
mainstream headlines but this update was widely
been in what some are calling a ‘land grab’ phase,
covered in the press – not least because of the headline-
which has seen brands rush to stake a position in front
friendly epithet, but also because it was a rare instance
of a mobile audience, often compromising on quality in
in which the update was announced in advance by
favour of getting to market faster. This was the era of
Google. The apocalyptic name belied what was actually
clunky mobile sites, confusing redirects, inconsistent
a fairly low-key initial impact, but more than anything
functionality and lots of strange and unhelpful
this update marked the beginning of a major sea change
apps – all contributing to a poor user experience on
in the significance of mobile performance to organic
mobile. 2015 was the first time that we really began
search success.
to see brands recognising that mobile was actually
There’s no great mystery behind the intense focus that Google placed on mobile performance in 2015. The
an incredibly fertile ground in which to develop meaningful, enhanced experiences for their customers.
number of searches made on mobile devices surpassed
These kind of experiences range from the simple,
that of desktops worldwide, meaning that mobile
such as creating adaptive or responsive mobile-first
users became the majority that brands should seek to
websites, to ambitious projects such as the use of
satisfy. One of the more interesting consequences of
iBeacons at airports to facilitate a smooth, mobile-
this transition has been an almost unprecedented level
only journey from ticket purchase to check-in. Beacon
of transparency from Google about what best practice
technology is a particularly interesting field of
should look like. It provides a mobile-friendly testing
opportunity for brands that have a physical touchpoint
tool with which webmasters can assess their pages
with their customers, because of its ability to drive
against specific design criteria, as well as a dedicated
offline behaviours at highly specific locations and
mobile test within the PageSpeed Insights tool. In
moments in time. If you were a wine producer, for
October 2015, Google announced support for the
example, you might be able to use a supermarket’s
Accelerated Mobile Pages project (AMP) – a project
beacon technology to promote an offer on your
which utilises existing web technologies within a new
products via a push notification at the exact moment a
open source framework, designed to help brands create
potential customer was browsing the aisle.
much lighter webpages. AMP enables sites to observe best practice by managing the size, order and rendering of page elements, making it much simpler to adhere to Google’s PageSpeed guidelines.
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Developments in Mobile and App Search Optimisation
Overcoming the App Threshold This end of the mobile experience spectrum is still highly theoretical, however, because of the heavy onus on customers to facilitate this kind of communication – most commonly by engaging with an app. Whilst modern consumers are increasingly comfortable with sharing personal data if there is a reasonable value exchange
Chrome on iOS, then finally Safari, in 2015. The early Android results only turned up apps already installed on the device, but now relevant non-installed app results are returned too. This part is key – it’s here that apps can overcome the app threshold by getting in front of a new audience and ultimately drive brand engagement.
on offer, asking them to engage with an app to do so is
Customer engagement isn’t the only incentive for
still a tall order. Elle magazine’s Shop Now offering is
developing and optimising apps. In April 2015, Google
an excellent example of how this technology can work
stated that an indexed app counts as a ranking factor
successfully, with push notifications to opted-in users
for a brand’s overall performance, saying “if your app
having driven some half a million store visits in 2015.
is indexed, Google will use the content within your app
The value exchange is key though, because brands must
as a signal in ranking, not just your web content.” A
overcome a downward trend in app engagement if they
further ranking boost for apps using the Google App
are to succeed in garnering interactions.
Indexing API was announced in September 2015, as the
A Nielsen study from 2015 illustrates the app “threshold” that consumers have reached in recent years. Whilst the average time spent using apps per person per month (hh:mm) continues to increase year on year, the number of apps consumers are actually engaging with is in decline. This data might come as something of a surprise to anyone who’s been following
API allows Google to gather additional insights into how your app is being engaged with. And if all that wasn’t incentive enough to make app optimisation a priority, 2015 also saw advancements for Google Now on Tap and Apple’s Spotlight Search that enable both to surface deep content from installed apps – provided, of course, that it’s properly optimised.
industry news over the past year; why has there been
I talked earlier about the way in which mobile experience
so much buzz about app optimisation and indexation
has taken a big step beyond the wild west ‘land grab’ it
if demand is actually waning? Well, I believe that the
had been when brands first started rushing to market
advances Google’s made in app indexing during 2015
with mobile sites, and I believe that the steps that search
are precisely what’s required in order to overcome this
engines are taking to index app content are making a
threshold. We’ll begin to see this trend reverse as new
significant contribution to this. The more content that
or forgotten apps become significantly easier to surface
can be indexed, the broader and richer a consumer’s
and interact with.
online experience can be and the more potential there is
At this stage it’s worth including a whistle-stop summary of how app indexing has evolved since it was introduced in 2013. Initially only available to a small selection of Android apps when it launched, app indexing expanded
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to include all Android apps by 2014 and then to include
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for delivering real life value. The Year of Mobile might not have been the futuristic phenomenon many were expecting, but it certainly laid exciting foundations.
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