Google educates on best practices in mobile sites, advertising

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What’s a mobile site? Judging by their online presence, a lot of businesses have no clue so Google set out to educate them by launching a dedicated GoMobile site at howtogomo.com. Assets available at the site teach businesses how to create mobile web sites and it comes with a dozen interesting case studies of mobile web sites done right, including Google’s own.

It provides education, case studies and best practices for marketers large and small that don’t yet have mobile sites. The site also features a handy emulator that shows you how your site looks on smartphones. In short, Google says, mobile web sites should load fast and must be easy to use, which entails that no pinching and zooming is required. Some folks were quick to note that Google’s new mobile initiative does not apply to their own blog post announcing the change, which fails to render on iPhone properly.

Interested parties can also register for a webinar titled “Making Mobile-Friendly Websites: Best Practices in Action” due November 10 at 11am PST/2pm EST. Additionally, Google takes into account mobile optimized sites or landing pages when determining ad quality rankings. Speaking of mobile advertising…

Google said in a recent conference call with analysts that it has hit a $2.5 billion mobile advertising rate. As for the end users that consume those adverts, Google has improved the Ads Preferences Manager with the ability to block advertisers or turn off personalized ads. In a bid for greater transparency, Google has decided to put the “Why these ads” link next to adverts that appear in Gmail as well as search results. This will give you information about why you’re seeing a particular ad and how it’s personalized for you, based on considerations including content at hand, the language you’re using, your geographic location and more. Those eager to learn more should mark their calendar on Wednesday, November 2, at 9-10:30am PST/12-1:30pm EST when the company is scheduled to deliver a Think Mobile webinar titled “Mobile Advertising: Right Person, Right Time, Right Message – Finally!”, led by digital marketing evangelist Avinash Kaushik (register here).
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