InformationWeek Interviews David Harper on Mobile SEO

Winksite’s 25K publishers rely on us to sort out Mobile SEO on their behalf. That’s a responsibility we take seriously.

Catch up on what we’re thinking and doing…

28 Aug 07: InformationWeek: David Harper Interviewed by Stephen Wellman
How To Optimize Your Mobile Website For Search

30 Jun 07: David Harper’s Different Things Blog (Winksite)
Winksite Releases Major Upgrade – Love the Mobile Web.

27 Jun 07: InformationWeek
Simple Web Design And Discoverability Are Keys To Mobile SEO

Additional Resources
Paul Bennett has started a mobile SEO blog where he maintains a list of useful resources. Paul also formed a Mobile SEO Group where I hope others will join us in further discussion. (UPDATE: Apparently membership is currently by invitation only so if you’re interested in an invitation, please introduce yourself to Bryson Meunier.) Paul writes over at Marketing Pilgrim reporting on Mobile Marketing news with Andy Beal. He was kind enough to write an article about Winksite, “Winksite Shares Some Mobile Love“.

Disclaimer: The mention of my name in the title of a post I wrote is intended for SEO purposes only. It should not be taken as an expression of self importance. I just dropped behind the Walton’s guy again. – David Harper

Winksite Releases Major Upgrade – Love the Mobile Web.

You asked for it. We built it.

What’s new?
Here are the most prominent benefits in our July 6th release:

It’s mine and I want it to look that way.
Personalize your mobile site with your own sense of style. Mix and match various color schemes and backgrounds. Sure it sounds pretty standard but we came up with something different that you can proudly call yours while still working across a great variety of mobile devices and screens.

100% valid XHTML code.
With this release every mobile site published at Winksite is fully compliant with W3C Mobile Web Standards. Without having to lift a finger or squint at code your Winksite is guaranteed to score 5/5 on dotMobi’s MobiReady Report. What does this mean beyond bragging rights? Broad support across every browser on the planet to start. …and for those visitors still using WAP, no worries we serve that up just as neatly as ever. Combined with our RSS-driven content deployment, this approach delivers fresh and fast-loading content to you and your audience.

Preview: From a desktop browser (not mobile) hop over to the dotMobi’s MobiReady Report generator and copy & paste http://winksite.com/xhtml/ms_main.cfm?susid=1561 into the validator to run an analysis and receive it’s MobiReady score.

Simple to navigate. Simple to use.
Each Winksite benefits from thousands of hours of fresh research, user testing and community feedback. From it’s simple, channel-based structure, to it’s universal “Main Menu” link, Click-to-call dialing options, and easy to use community features – each mobile site you launch comes bundled with a pleasurable mobile experience.

Before the world can beat a path to your door first you have to be discovered.
With your content and our search engine optimization features you can start your climb to first page mobile search results. First, add descriptions & keywords to your mobile pages to allow search engines to index your website more efficiently. Then sit back while our smart presentation templates make the best of Title, H1/H2 tags, and link naming to tweak your pages for maximum SEO goodness.

…but that’s not all – every mobile web site now comes complete with it’s own Google Mobile Sitemap.

The mobile Web is not just for phones anymore.
We’re now delivering your site and content to new places. Gamers and their WiFi connected version of the Internet have been largely ignored by Mobile & Web 2.0 publishing and community platforms. We’re changing that. Whatever you choose to build at Winksite is now served up optimized and fully functioning to the Sony PSP browser and Nintendo DS Lite Opera browser over WiFi connections. With the DS-Lite in mind we provide a fast loading and readable version while in overview mode. The PSP is delivered a version that eliminates the horizontal scrolling (and reduces the vertical scrolling) required to read posts and chat with your friends. (Note: This part of the release is based in part on feedback we received from the download and use of the WordPress Ultimate Gamer’s Pack we provided to WordPress publishers several months ago.)

What about the Apple iPhone?
No worries. We have it covered with a set of iPhone-optimized web site templates. Fire up your iPhone’s Internet browser and check out your Winksite by tapping in your mobile site address or the following mobile URL – http://winksite.com/xhtml/ms_main.cfm?susid=1561 – changing the susid number to your own.

What about the Helio Ocean, Nokia Nseries/s60, and others?

  • Apple iPhone – Supported.
  • Blackberry Devices – Supported.
  • Helio Ocean – Supported.
  • HTC – Supported.
  • LG – Supported.
  • Motorola – Supported.
  • Nintendo DS Lite (Opera Browser) – Supported.
  • Nokia Nseries – Supported.
  • Nokia s60 – Supported.
  • Nokia (Other) – Supported.
  • Obigo Browser – Supported.
  • Opera Browser – Supported.
  • Openwave Browser – Supported.
  • Palm Devices – Supported.
  • Samsung – Supported.
  • Sharp – Supported.
  • Sony Ericsson – Supported.
  • Sony mylo – Supported.
  • Sony PSP – Supported.
  • T-Mobile Sidekick – Supported.
  • Window’s Mobile Devices – Supported.

Winksite. Love the Mobile Web.
Winksite makes it easy to publish mobile Internet sites and build simple mobile connections via mobile phones. Winksite is the first standards compliant mobile Website builder that also includes RSS-driven content deployment and mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls. This approach delivers fresh content, fast-loading screens, and universally accessible community features to you and your audience. The Winksite service is a free and fully hosted solution. No software install on your phone is necessary to view a Winksite powered mobile site. Learn more about how it works.

One platform. Many uses.
Use your mobile site as your personal podium to the world, a convenient mobile dashboard to all you find important or as a space to build and manage a mobile community. Create a mobile edition of your blog, journal or news service. Start a mobile chat room, forum or poll. Glue together your friends, feeds, and favorites into your own mobile personal portal. Organize an event or street team and spread the word on the where, when and why. Link SMS, QR Codes, mobile ads, or Twitter & Jaiku messages to a mobile destination where people can see and do more.

Preview: MobileOK Templates

Winksite is the first standards compliant mobile Website builder that also includes mobile-tuned community features such as forum, chat, and polls.

See for yourself how one set of our beta XHTML presentation templates rate at dotMobi. dotMobi’s MobiReady Report tests the mobile-readiness of a site using industry best practices & standards. Ready.mobi uses industry standard tests developed with the W3C and leading mobility companies. Ready.mobi provides an analysis of how your web content is likely to function on a mobile device. Many tests performed by ready.mobi are defined by the W3C in the MobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 document. It is currently in review.

Boing Boing Mobile (Scores 5 out of 5)
http://winksite.com/xhtml/ms_main.cfm?susid=2906
Direct link to Mobi Ready score for Boing Boing Mobile.

Metroblogging Mobile (Scores 5 out of 5)
http://winksite.com/xhtml/ms_main.cfm?susid=12840
Direct link to Mobi Ready score for Metroblogging Mobile.
View Metroblogging Mobile on the Opera Mini Simulator.

What About My Winksite?
If you have a Winksite of your own use this URL string:
http://winksite.com/xhtml/ms_main.cfm?susid=%5BWINKSITE_ID%5D replacing [WINKSITE_ID] with your Winksite ID #. Paste this URL into the MobiReady Report located at http://ready.mobi/

Roadmap
We still have several weeks to go to take these templates out of beta but the following roadmap will give you an idea of where we’re heading with them. …the plan vanilla look of the current templates will get alot sweeter looking prior to release.

Release 1: Standards Compliant & SEO
  • XHTML MP standards compliant presentation templates
  • Site-level Google Mobile Sitemap file (sitemap.gz)
  • Choice of design templates
Release 2: Custom Templates & Media Support
  • Mobile-tuned WYSIWYG Editor
  • Support for logo
Release 3: Sites for Small Spaces
Presentation templates to support gamers and their favorite devices. …and who’s WiFi connected, portable version of the Internet has been largely ignored by publishing platforms and communities. We’re changing that.
  • Presentation support for Nintendo Wii, DS Lite and Sony PSP gaming device Web browsers