Smartphones are super handy. Whether a song makes you think of Joan of Arc, and you want to learn more about her; or when you get a mean gyro craving and you want to find the nearest restaurant to get your fix; or if you want to see if a replacement part is in stock at the local repair shop. A smartphone will help find the answers to your questions.
If you haven’t made it easy for your customers and potential customers to find you using their smartphones, you may be losing out on a lot of potential business.
- Mobile traffic on Google grew five-fold over the past two years (Google Research, 2011).
- 50% of searches made on smartphones are for local businesses (Bing Research, 2011).
- After conducting a mobile search 68% of users visited a business, 53% made a purchase (Google Research, 2011).
Tapping into the mobile market should increase the number of customers walking into your store, asking about your products and services, and buying from you. If you provide the right information, customers will find you when they search on their smartphone for all your products and services. Show your smartphone shoppers everything from your big ticket items down to your replacement parts inventory.
What do your mobile using customers search for?
When searching locally on mobile devices 89% of consumers look for information about retailers, such as phone number, address, and hours (Performics, 2011).
Smartphones are exactly that: Smart. Whatever question you have, you can simply ask the smartphone. When a potential customer is ready to buy your services, what questions does he ask? What exactly is he looking for? What would you look for? The four main things your mobile customers ask include:
What is the website address? Your Online Stores gives your customers all the information they need to know about the products and services you offer, including your specials and promotions.
What is the location? Once a potential customer decides you have what they need, the next question they ask is, where the heck is this place? You need to give them your address and map pin on Google Places.
What are the hours of operation? When your potential customer sees you have what he needs, and he finds out where you are, he needs to know when you’re open.
What is the phone number? A web address, a physical address, and a phone number are all routes your customers take to get to your business.
Where do your mobile using customers find you?
Customer search in three main places online when using mobile phones to find your dealership: search engines, yellow pages websites, and Facebook. The following activities will cover most of your customers’ mobile searches.
Update Google Maps and your Google Places entry.
Submit your website to local search engines (Google, Yahoo!, etc.).
Submit your website to be added to Internet yellow pages like Superpages.com.
Create a Facebook Business Page for your dealership.
Improved Searches
One of the best things you can do to improve your mobile search results is follow traditional Search Engine Optimization best practices as closely as possible. While mobile bots and indexes are different from Web searches, things like title tags, heading tags, and ALT tags are still very important.
We’ve got you covered.
A fully-functional Online Store from 50 Below covers all the pathways your mobile customers search. From updating Google Maps, submitting your website to search engines, and adding your website to Internet yellow pages, to offering tutorials and helping to set up your own Facebook Business page. Stay tuned in the coming months for new information and products related to your smartphone shoppers.
Schedule a website review today and see how your customers search on your website.