If you aren’t tracking mobile visitors to your website, you should be. Google Analytics can easily tell you how many people visit your site through mobile devices and how many of those visitors convert.  If you have a mobile-friendly website in addition to your Web-based site, there are a number of analytics providers that can track the performance of your mobile-specific website such as PercentMobile, Bango, and DeckStats.

If you are tracking mobile visitors, I bet you’ll find an increase in traffic this time of year. On average, my clients see a notable increase in mobile site visitors, anywhere from 80% to 300% in August 2011 since January 2011. Due to convenience, this mobile trend will only be heightened during the holidays. However, waiting until November/December to plan, create and implement your mobile strategy can negatively impact your site’s conversion potential.  In fact, an AdMob smartphone survey found that a large number of smartphone and tablet users plan on starting their holiday shopping BEFORE Thanksgiving – which is all the more reason to start optimizing for mobile right now.

The holiday season is busy, and convenience is a premium for consumers.  In fact, according to a recent study by eMarketer, “even if current mobile shoppers buy different things and pay in varying ways, connecting with potential m-commerce users comes down to emphasizing its convenient nature.”

The growing emphasis on mobile traffic got me thinking about the importance of optimizing digital marketing efforts for mobile visitors.

First, mobile SEO and paid search campaigns will be crucial for the bottom line. According to Chris Copeland at clickz.com,

• 15% of all Black Friday searches will be done via mobile devices.
• 44% of total searches for last minute gifts and store locaters will come from mobile.
• As of February, Google stated that 79% of its advertising base did not offer an optimized mobile experience.
• While one in five shoppers used the mobile device, they almost universally acknowledged having no recall of paid search advertising.

In addition to mobile SEO, you should also pay close attention to your email designs and how they render on mobile browsers. This article by Neil Berman at mediapost.com gives some mobile email optimization guidelines:

• Design for fat fingers… coding all links and buttons with a target area of at least 44 x 44 pixels.
• Choose the right email dimensions… for the best display on both mobile devices and the desktop, code your emails between 480 and 600 pixels.
• Make the most of pre-header text… many mobile devices will display this text along with the subject line… iPhones allow about 140 characters, so keep the text short and persuasive.

Putting together a well-targeted digital marketing strategy takes time for both research and implementation—assets for your mobile audience are no exception. As our team can tell you, search engine optimization can take weeks after implementation to show any impact, PPC campaigns involve in-depth research before launch, and email campaigns require strategically placed content and multiple tests before blasting. So whether your mobile traffic has dramatically increased, slowly matured, or constantly fluctuated this year, I suggest you review your digital marketing strategy; your audience’s mobile experience relies on it.

If you’re interested in a deeper explanation, or want to connect about additional online marketing strategy, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at @MrsDebbieW.

Being a Facebook member since its universe was Harvard, MIT, BU and BC, I love Facebook– plain and simple.  I love its clean white and blue look.  I love that it keeps me in touch with my college, high school and even elementary school friends. I love that it’s always growing and changing. I especially love the Scrabble application! However, I don’t always take its changes lightly.

I was upset when other universities were initially added, but I clung to the posted “join date” to show others I had been a member longer (I’m still bummed about losing that one).  I refused to upload photos at first until I was “tagged” so many times that it seemed impossible to avoid.  While no one ever created a group demanding these changes be undone, I’m not so sure these recent changes will be something I accept lightly either.

Since first hearing about it, the new business page layouts have been in the front of my mind, especially since I work with Facebook daily.  Profile and Business Pages as we once knew them are gone. While I totally understand that Facebook is a social media and it therefore makes sense for social aspects to be front and center, I miss the simple page layouts with thoughtfully placed applications and graphics.

Even though it seems like the Facebook universe has become apathetic to the changes, have there been any Facebook changes that you wish they would change back?  What are your thoughts on the rumors that Facebook may go to a paid for subscription model for certain features?