It has not been a surprise that the internet landscape has been pretty much conquered by mobiles. As we advised a year ago, mobiles have increasingly nudged desktop-use out of the way. Indeed, according to Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior VP of Ads and Commerce, half of Google searches happen on mobile.
And Google continues to evolve—as demonstrated at the annual Google Performance Summit which took place yesterday. The company will be introducing “promoted pins”, a new feature that will ride on the increasing domination of mobile use. There is a direct correlation between what people are looking for on the internet and how these searches translate to their offline movements, meaning that if a business seems to be within their locality, there is a higher chance of an actual visit to that business. “Location-related mobile searches [are] growing 50% faster than all mobile searches,” says Ramaswamy.
What Google’s “promoted pins” means then is a way for businesses to pay for local search ads for relevant searches on Google Maps. When a user makes a mobile search for “sporting goods toronto”, for example, promoted pins corresponding to the user’s location and search terms will get higher visibility on Maps. And there’s even more: Google will also add new features such a special promotions and a way to browse inventory. Businesses are then given more of a platform to present their goods and offer incentives to convert the mobile-using public into visiting and/or buying customers. On top of all this, Google also continues to develop measurement logistics so that actual physical store visits are reported.
The consequences of this for you, if you are a business owner, is that you’re given more of an edge if you do pursue paying for local search ads with Google. The other side of the coin though is that your competition in the area may thrive better than you if they do start promoting and you don’t. The best protection for your business online would be amping up on your website’s online presence through SEO and SEM. As ever, it is very important to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly.
Should you want to improve your website’s visibility, you can give us a call and we can begin.
905-492-2356