Morgan Stanley’s analysts believe that, based on the current rate of change and adoption, the mobile web will be bigger than desktop Internet by 2015.  Many mobile web users are mobile-only, i.e., they do not or very rarely use a desktop, laptop or tablet to access the Internet.  In the US, 25% are mobile only.  What are the most visited websites?

• Search – 77%
• Social Networking – 65%
• Retail Websites – 46%

Most prevalent types of searches are news (57%) restaurant (51%), navigational (51%), entertainment (49%), shopping (47%), and business info, products or services (24%). Nearly all local seekers take action within a day.

According to Google, a good mobile site will:

1. Load fast
2. Be easy to read (many phones have no zoom function)
3. Be easy to navigate
4. Have minimum scrolling (both vertically and horizontally)
5. Avoid flash (Apple mobile devices will never support flash)
6. Have mobile-specific consumer behavior

Google is pushing advertisers to optimize sites for mobile by penalizing Adwords campaigns leading to non-mobile-optimized sites and also penalizing regular sites that are not mobile friendly in organic search results.

For local consultants, the best advice we’ve heard is rather than doing new content, simply to take 3-6 things from an existing site and reconfigure in mobile format.  Jason Fladlien of Rapid Crush consulting suggests that for the first 5 clients, a new consultant, charge $500  and a $50 ongoing monthly maintenance fee (including hosting and domain fees) for up to 30 minutes of updates.  Additional updates would be priced at $100 per hour.  The earning potential for someone working 260 days per year would amount to $130K in fees plus $13K in monthly continuity.

How to Quickly Engage Clients:

1.  Local Ads Method – Anytime coming across a local ad on TV, radio, or print ad, check the website and then contact the business with your offer to help (see example at right).  According to local marketing expert Jack Mize, a leading local Internet consultant, you should emphasize the client issue vs. your own expertise.

2.  Local PPC Method – Contact the businesses advertising on Adwords for relevant search terms in your industry of choice.  Again, let them know the issues with their site.  Since these people are already advertising online, they will be the best prospects.

3.  Browser Detection What? Method – Some sites that have attempted to create mobile websites still have a problem.  Alert the business of the problem and offer to help.

4.  Flash Based Fool Method – It is a myth that you can’t search for flash-based sites.  Now, due to work between Adobe and Google, these sites can be indexed adequately.  However the problem remains that their website can’t be read by most mobile devices.  You can simply contact the business and offer to help them fix it.

There are other methods, including turning print shops in to jv partners,  using LinkedIn super-connectors as affiliates,  finding a client a day on Groupon,  bringing a QR code to a restaurant and then showing management what their site looks like on your mobile phone.  Rapid Crush Consulting offers a WordPress-based mobile site builder, which currently includes 9 themes.

Related articles

• Mobile Growth Stats & Mobile Web Tips to Start Marketing (searchenginewatch.com)
• ESPN: Mobile Audience Growing, Spending More Time (mediapost.com)
• The global state of the mobile industry (rossdawsonblog.com)
• What to watch for in mobile web apps (radar.oreilly.com)
• A 4 Step Process for Marketing Local Businesses (jimgreen.us)