If you’ve done a mobile search recently, you’ll be only too aware on how broken it is. Even Google struggles to rank mobile sites, listing the PC websites first (but why, I’m on a mobile?) before giving you acces to the mobile websites on another results page.

Bango research found that only half of PC websites delivered a made-for mobile version when you entered the web address on your cell phone. So, if you have a mobile site then make sure your PC site detects a mobile device and presents the made-for mobile version.

Visibility Mobile for mobile SEO

        Visibility Mobile for mobile SEO

Fortunately there is a free online file generator which enables webmasters to create a meta.txt file of their site. This file contains all the information necessary to help a visitor to your site get to the right version of your site. The meta.txt file is the brainchild of Visibility Mobile, a mobile search engine optimization firm offering services and tools to brands, search engines and mobile agencies.

To fully understand the meta.txt file and why it is important, why not grab their 7-page white paper, MetaTXT: Solving Mobile Search through Simple Technology. It is easy to read and will help understand exactly how to use the meta.txt file you can generate for your site using their meta.txt online file generator.

We wish Visibility luck in getting the traction this new standard needs if we are to ensure Mobile SEO delivers users with a great mobile experience.
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3 Comments

By Nadir on November 7, 2008

“PC websites first (but why, I’m on a mobile?)”

Because people aren’t only looking for mobile content when they search from their phone :)

Since the mobile sites index of Google and others is quite small, and not as relevant as desktop sites, users will be frustrated if they’d only get to see mobile sites. If you’re looking for mobile games or ringtones, it’s fine to see mobile sites.

But if you’re looking for information, news, etc, users would prefer to have a transcoded version of a web page, rather than nothing, or irrelevant mobile pages.

Google decides to display web results by default, while Yahoo OneSearch displays the first 3 results of each index (Web and Mobile Web).

Also, MetaTXT would be a “fix” if it was supported by the main mobile search engines out there, which is not the case yet as far as I know.

By sarahkeefe on November 7, 2008

Nadir,

Thanks for commenting. I see your point, it’s better that they get something rather than nothing which is the search result in most cases.

The problem is that if you have a phone with a small display as the vast majority of phones have then seeing a transcoded version of a PC site is probably not much better!

By Experimenting with Mobile SEO « Mobislim Webmasters Blog on November 19, 2008

[...] Curious to find out more? There are various moves afoot to improve mobile SEO, one of which involves getting the major search engines to support a meta.txt file. For more on this, read Mobile SEO gets a fix from Visibility Mobile. [...]

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