It has become strikingly apparent that browsing the internet from your mobile device is becoming increasingly more common.  So making sure that your website is mobile friendly and you are leveraging your mobile traffic to the best of your ability, should be of the utmost importance to you. The main question that tends to perplex people is whether or not visitors are trying to find their website from a mobile device?

The best way to establish whether or not visitors are seeking out your website from a mobile device is through your analytical data. Google Analytics is the best free tool in helping you to analyze your website traffic. You can find out how many people are coming to your site from a mobile device and how they are interacting with your site.  As a result you will be able to either confirm or deny your need for a mobile friendly website.

Google Analytics permits you to make advanced custom segments, which allow you to easily determine if visitors are coming to your site from a mobile device. To begin creating an advanced custom segment, click “Advanced Segments” from the “My Customizations” section of your profile and then click “Create New Advanced Segment.”

Follow the 7 easy steps below to create your customize advanced segment and better determine how many visitors are finding you from their mobile device.

1. Drag the `Dimension’ or metric from the left-hand side into the field bordered by dotted lines. (i.e. `Operating Systems’, as seen above)
2. Choose the `Condition’ appropriate to your segment. (i.e. starts with, ends with, greater than.. etc) “Contains” was the value used in our example above.
3. Enter the comparison `Value’ you are using to measure the condition selected. (illustrated above are the names of the operating systems)
4. You can use “and” “or” statements as well to make the segments more comprehensive and limiting.
5. Be sure to click ‘Test Segment.’ to ensure that you chose conditions that make sense and pull data correctly.
6. Name your segment accordingly, and then click ‘Create Segment’ to complete the creation of the segment.
7. Once you have saved the advanced segment, you will be able to apply it through the ‘advanced segments” function in your profile. You will also have the ability to edit the segment at a later date as seen below.

 
Now comes the fun part! You will now be able to determine the quality and quantity of your mobile traffic through your newly created advanced segment and validate the need for creating a mobile friendly website.

As search queries continue to evolve, so does Google’s search strategy. With searchers becoming more and more in tune with what they want and how to search to obtain the most relevant results, Google has adapted.

Google has begun testing brand recommendations in response to search queries. Users searching for items such as cameras, phones, mp3 player, printers, vacuums and many more are seeing more than the average results. Google is now displaying brand recommendations based on the above type of search queries.

(Screen Shot f Brand Recommendations Below)

The recommended brands are listed at the top of the organic results, just below the sponsored ad results. The big brands are gaining more exposure in the Google search results than possibly ever before.

The question that advertisers and marketers will want to know is how they can get their brands to appear within these recommendations? Are they based on the size and popularity of a brand? If so, do only large brand companies have the ability to gain this exposure? That leering question has yet to have been answered by Google. It is still unclear how brands get the ability to show up in these brand recommendations or what Google’s rational is behind this new feature.

As a nation we are becoming increasingly dependent on our mobile devices for updates, news and general communication. It has become apparent that mobile devices have become the newest battleground for advertising.

According to ComScore, 42.7 million people in the U.S. owned smart phones in an average month between November 09 to January 10, which is up 18 percent from the prior August through October period.

Apple’s plan to launch a new mobile ad platform called “iAd'’ this summer marks Apple’s first major step into a small but growing industry. iAd will allow businesses to insert advertisements directly into applications offered on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. According to Steve Jobs, “This is where the opportunity to deliver advertising is, not as part of search but as part of apps.” Apple will sell and host the ads, and give the developers 60 percent of the revenue.

Speculators say that Apple’s new venture may be a knee-jerk reaction to the search engine giant Google’s attempt to purchase AdMob, which controls about one-third of the market for advertisements on mobile applications and web pages?
Apple anticipates that their new iAd platform will help cut down on mobile device users’ frustrations by keeping consumers within their existing application or experience, and will make it possible for users to engage in a variety of activities at once, without being forced to leave the application. Apple currently offers more than 185,000 applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch.
If Apple’s venture into mobile advertising doesn’t assure the importance and competitiveness of mobile advertising, then I am not sure what will. Now is the time to strike when the iron is hot and make sure that you have a mobile presence.