June 21st, 2011
Mobile web is an essential component of any app launch
As the iPhone and Android app market expands, we’re learning more about how search in the app store environments will scale with the rapidly swelling tide of applications (400,000+ at last count). In particular, app discoverability remains a significant problem for brands looking to add the app store as a marketing channel. Darrell Etherington from GigaOM discusses some of the challenges in his blog post, App discovery is a zero-sum game.
How many times will your target audience click "25 more" to get to your app?
The problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Most smartphone users don’t navigate past the lists of top apps, or search for an app specifically. If a smartphone user isn’t already looking for you by name, will they find your app, and will your marketing investment in the app pay off? Web search remains the preferred way of finding information on mobile phones, with 53% of US smartphone users performing at least one web search per day and 37% performing multiple searches as per data from joint findings from Google and the Mobile Marketing Association. You’ve worked hard to get good rankings in organic search — why not make the most of it?
Having a mobile optimized version of your site can be a great place to promote your app channel. As search engines are tuned to improve the ranking of sites offering mobile optimized for mobile visitors, having a good mobile site becomes imperative. Mobify’s technology can be used to make creating an app much easier, for example, Threadless and the GAP have both used their mobile web optimizations delivered through the Mobify platform to accelerate the deployment of apps for iPhone and iPad.
