Mobile search without a shade of doubt is being viewed as the next big breakthrough in the Internet world. Established Internet giants like Google Inc., Apple, Yahoo!/Microsoft have already started switching gears and are aggressively working in this direction to cater to the needs of a whole new species of customers. In all likelihood, the next three-five years will see more names investing in this promising facet of Internet search marketing.

But who else other than leading Internet search engine brands stand to benefit from this paradigm shift? The answer is business owners operating in the local market. After all, mobile SEO is a wonderful concept that will be catering and in the process, promoting various businesses.

Regionally, North America and European countries are the ones where mobile SEO has already registered its presence and the response has been overwhelming. And why not? After all, from an economic perspective they are still fighting the nemesis called ‘recession’. Unfortunately, it is the local dealers who have been badly hit. In testing times like this, mobile SEO has promised to resurrect their fates by aligning local business needs with revised search dynamics, letting the localites give the benefit of what they have.

To many business owners, operating locally, mobile search is nothing but bulk (promotional) text messages sent to random mobile users who dismiss (read: delete) them without even looking at it for once. But for their knowledge, there is much more to mobile SEO than just bulk text messages being floated within different mobile phone networks. A relatively fresh concept, mobile SEO unlike bulk text messages marketing tool which has lost the fizz and is a fine example of mobile phone spamming, has created an entire new category of shoppers.

The increasing number of ‘I-need-it-now’ or ‘killing-time’ shoppers, has drawn attention of local business owners who cannot afford to ignore them anymore. No points for guessing that a majority of these ‘I-need-it-now’ or ‘killing-time’ shoppers are actually smartphone-users who prefer to surf Internet from their PDAs and BlackBerries than from their desktops. Certainly, this over-exposure of Internet has facilitated local search in every possible way.

Local Search is a fantastic concept that responds instantly to queries fed by mobile-Internet-users based on their location. Certainly, for business owners who own restaurant, petrol pump, food joints, malls can tremendously benefit from it. Google Local is one dedicated platform that displays localized search results. But the best part is yet to be mentioned. Business listings on Google Local are absolutely free of charge. If that was about Google Local than Yahoo! too is not far behind, offering basic listings for free along with the option of sponsored listings.

Clearly, with search marketing dynamics set to undergo revamp, local search marketing holds the key to many businessmen fortunes.

Year 1999 saw Internet-users getting introduced to the concept of ‘desktop searches’. Apparently, the emergence of this visionary concept took the entire PC market by storm, triggering the evolution of world’s most influential (search engine) brand known as Google Inc. today.

Since then search engine marketing has come a long way. In the last 12 years, Internet marketing techniques like SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), SMO (Social Media Optimization) have helped countless businessmen, merchants from every corner of the world, grab a sizable chunk of virtual space and benefit from it. But that is all set to change now.

“The fact of the matter is that mobile devices are going to be the majority of the way that people get information” - Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google Inc. in March 2009

Today, in 2011, Internet giants are again pushing the envelope. Though this time, the approach is much concise and far-reaching. Yes, we are talking about mobile SEO, the future face of Internet search marketing. Now that smartphones/tablet PCs have been outpacing desktops in terms of sales, they have also captured the imagination of established virtual world names, who see abundant potential in it.

But why mobile SEO??

Simply because almost every one owns a smartphone today. In fact, according to a recent report made public by eMarketer, the projected figure of worldwide mobile-search users in 2011 will be 844.9 million, which is a staggering jump of 625.7 million from the 219.2 million mark recorded in 2006. But these are just plain figures. Honestly, the idea of surfing Internet while moving and staying connected round the clock is a bit tempting. Of course, the smartphones (known to be miniature versions of modern-day desktops) selling like hot cakes and increasing number of mobile-customized websites, suggest only one thing. That is more people can be accessed via smartphone than a normal Internet-enabled Personal Computer.

In recent Interactive Local Media conference by BIA/Kelsey, it was discussed as how mobile is inherently local and what are its impact, strategies and best practices. Following basic statistical figures came out as a result of many researches done:

• Mobile Internet users rose to 60 million over years.
• Mobile search will overtake Desktop search in next 5 years by Morgan Stanley
• As reported by Verizon and T-mobile, 40% of new devices sold are smart phones
• Nielsen predicts 50% smart phone penetration by mid 2011
• Google reports that 1/3 of searches conducted from mobile devices have local intent whereas only 10-11% of Google searches initiated from a PC have local intent
• Ad units such as coupon redemptions, trade conversion, Cost per action etc are evolving with mobile.

• Mobile has proven worth and ability to independently target more customers than any other channel and its potential is greater than TV and computers because of its better reach to the niche segment.
• Usage of Mobile search has grown 5 times in the last 2 years
• According to the latest data from mobileSQUARED, 2010 will see roughly $800 million spend on mobile advertising and will likely increase to $5 billion over the next five years.
• Apple’s iPhone sees 50 times the number of search queries as the average “feature phone”
• ComScore shows that mobile users are often very active on their phones. Smart phone subscribers, for instance, are all split by operating system and some of the applications available to them, but all are able to access the Mobile Web and they often use their phones to search for information.
• Various activities are been performed by the consumers from their smart phones:

• Google now enables local advertisers to target their campaigns to mobile devices

Google Places providing opportunities for local Businesses

Local marketing has gained superlative importance in last few months because of its outcomes resulting in customers to your doorstep and instant brand awareness among your targeted customers.

Drastic moves by Google can be seen in listing the local search results. Local search section has gone from 20% of search results on the first page to 80% when “Restaurants in San Diego” or “Gift Shop in London” is typed into Google search. Google Maps section has now taken up to 80% of search results for geographic targeted search terms.

Recently, local search appears to all consumed with the Google Places Local Business Directory. Now with the change in Google search algorithm, Google have started listing their Places results at the top of the page ahead of the traditional organic search listings. With this change, a dynamic shift in the way Internet marketers and local business owners use the Web for maximum community based customer acquisition has been noticed.

Google is working on a new process to identify “search intent” i.e. the meaning behind a keyword search as well as the search engine users’ motivation for performing the search. For example, if a searcher based in New York based enters the keyword phrase “restaurants”, Google would filter out restaurants based in New York and not San Francisco, and displays their search results accordingly.

So search results for local business will be localized will not more remain global. But the

most important factor for improving your local visibility is the development and posting of citations. Similar to traditional search listing for which back links are important, citations are essential for competitive placement of the Places profile. Internet based directories Best of Web Local, Brown book and Merchant Circle offer opportunities for businesses to list their information in their directories.