Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org spent some time answering some mobile search marketing questions. Rand needs little to no introduction so I will cut to the chase. We discussed things about mobile search marketing that services thinking about offering this service should consider. Thanks rand and I really appreciate your input.

Joe: What kind of phone do you have?

Rand: I’ve got a Motorola “Q”

Joe: When you are performing mobile search what do you normally search for?

Rand: Usually I’m looking for a phone number, an address, the name of something, or, even more frequently, some actor/actress that was in something (don’t ask, it comes up a lot for some reason)

Joe: Do you see any of your clients looking for any type of mobile search optimization?

Rand: Very rarely - mobile SEO isn’t yet important because while it can get you traffic, that traffic is generally much less likely to convert or be valuable than normal web traffic.

Joe: For the clients that do look for mobile search optimization what sets your approach apart from your competitors?

Rand: We don’t specialize in it, so I’d guess that we differ in that we most often refer

Joe: In your opinion, how can mobile search help the smaller companies.

Rand: Right now the folks who can best take advantage are local businesses, especially stores, restaurants and firms providing services. Mobile users are looking for these and if you can come up #1, you’ll get a lot of attention.

Joe: What opportunities do you see for American companies to utilize mobile foreign search?

Rand: As in my example above, if Starbucks can develop a good mobile search strategy in Tokyo, they can seriously increase business. Likewise for other global brands.

Joe: How would you implement a foreign mobile search campaign and measure success?

Rand: It’ relatively easy to segment mobile users by browser and screen resolution, so measuring success can be accomplished by tracking mobile traffic through standard analytics.

Joe: What are some of the hurdles you see mobile search facing today and what will it take to overcome these hurdles?

Rand: Mobile search barely “engages” the user at this time - it’s considerably more informational and much harder to monetize. No one is whipping out their credit card and buying over their phone (well… almost no one).

Thanks a lot rand and you really have some great insight into mobile search marketing & hello to all the mozzers! I am looking forward to meeting up with you all at SES San Jose!

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