• by Krista LaRiviere , Op-Ed Contributor, July 13, 2015

Now that you’ve survived mobilegeddon, it is about the time you’ll start to see the impact of Google’s latest mobile algorithm on your search and content marketing campaigns.

So far, some brands say it’s been significant, while others haven’t yet felt the effects. However, with the continued rise in mobile usage and engagement, almost all marketers will need to take a closer look at how effectively they’re getting discovered across devices.

3 Steps to Untangling the Traffic Jam

While marketers are taking advantage of the rising popularity and associated opportunities in mobile, keeping up with customers is tricky. Especially since there’s still plenty of activity on desktops and tablets.

If you know that mapping the customer journey is causing a data traffic jam, you also know that you’re missing out on opportunities. The best way to reclaim those missed opportunities is to first start by understanding all of your traffic sources and determining how much of it uniquely comes from mobile.

Once you know the sources of all of your traffic, you can make more strategic choices about mobile, voice and desktop SEO strategies.

Yet going beyond the pure numbers associated with data traffic, you’ll also want to add in the dimensions of audience behavior and personas. For example, is your target audience more likely to be searching on the go? Do they execute purchases or abandon shopping carts on their mobile devices? Are they webroomers?

A third factor to consider in your traffic analysis is the behavior of customers today, as well as trending behavior over the past six to 12 months. For example, eMarketer reported in December 2014 that mobile search would soon overtake desktop search.

By May 2015, Google reported that for the first time, more searches were coming from more mobile devices than laptops and desktops. Hence, the mobile algorithm change. Yet if marketers tuned into mobile trending data leading up to December and through the first quarter, they could have put mechanisms in place to ensure they weren’t lost when Google rolled out its new algorithm.

Understanding these factors, when mapped against your search analytics, gives you insight into the mobile search behavior of customers today. It also enables you to spot trends that will shape future search marketing strategies.

Search, Look and Listen

Since content has to be found in order for it to be seen, optimizing content for mobile also involves careful consideration of the visual and contextual elements of the entire user experience.

For example, marketers realize that mobile search is different from desktop search due to consumer intent and behavior. They know that people searching on their mobile devices typically seek immediate, location-based results and smart marketers optimize mobile content and offers with this in mind.

Yet the latest advances in voice recognition are playing an increasingly important role for marketers. Current smartphone voice recognition features like Siri, Cortana and Google Voice have contributed to an increase in mobile voice search. In fact, 55% of teens and 41%  of adults use voice search more than once each day. With such high usage, mobile voice search and text searches should be treated as separate search categories.

As consumers, we’ve been trained through years of desktop searches to input keywords that reflect the nature of search engines. For example, a desktop search for “Back to School” would likely deliver top 10 lists and links to online school supplies. Meanwhile, a text search on mobile would present local recommendations, shops and offers.

Applying the same search to mobile voice puts consumers in the driver’s seat as they simply ask, “Where can I get back to school supplies?” The search results would still deliver what the user requested while accommodating advances in voice recognition and geo-location data.

For these reasons, brands that understand the nuances of the subcategories of search, and then optimize keywords for desktop, mobile and mobile voice will see a boost in conversions. But this doesn’t mean you should completely lose sight of your laptop audience. Ideally, every user experience accommodates the needs of your audience wherever they are.