In a world where we are moving to all digital, all the time, it can leave one to wonder if there’s really a need to not only create websites to cater to mobile phone users, but to optimize these websites for search engines as well.  Certainly the number of mobile internet users is growing, and growing at a rate that likely exceeds the number of people trading their snail-paced dialup internet connections for the uber-fast connections that broadband internet affords us.  In order to cater to this generation of gadget-based internet users, should mobile website owners consider performing an optimization tune-up on their pint-sized websites?

If you’re not familiar with the explosive growth of the mobile internet domain market, from its public opening in October 2006, DotMobi surpassed the half-million mark in May of 2007 for registered .mobi domains, or domain names specifically designed for housing websites that cater to mobile internet users.  That’s over 500,000 new domain registrations in 140 countries in less than 7 months; that number doesn’t even take into account the countless WAP (wireless application protocol) domains, or mobile-internet friendly sites that are not using the .mobi suffix.

So, not only is the need for mobile phone friendly websites increasing on a daily basis due to the continued incline of mobile internet users, the competition within the mobile phone website industry is growing at exceptional rates as well.   It goes without saying that if you are working to establish your brand online and want to cater to the largest audience as possible, you are missing the boat if you haven’t thrown your hat into the ring and obtained your own website that caters to the mobile internet market.  However, is optimizing these websites really a necessity or simply an extravagance that the internet big-dogs lavishly shower their abundance of money on?

Really, it’s a tossup.  At least within the “regular” search engine optimization circles, optimizing websites for mobile internet users is largely unheard of. This does not by any means mean that this aspect of optimization is not important, though.  Mobile internet users still use the same search engines that DSL and Cable internet subscribers frequent, thus working to improve rankings for mobile internet websites should be considered with the same importance that an individual or company would give to optimizing their “non-mobile” websites, if they aspire to rank well for their intended keywords.

In fact, at least as of this point in time, many mobile-friendly website owners should find it easier to rank for popular search terms when searches are limited to .mobi domains as there are not as many competitors around; at least yet.  For instance, when performing a search in Google for “Car Insurance”, there are over 140 million results returned; a number that is over 100 times greater than the total number of .mobi domains registered today.  Grabbing your high-ranking spot on the WWW for mobile devices is probably something that should be looked into, especially if your website caters to what would be considered a popular keyword market.

Whether optimizing your mobile-friendly website is seen as a priority is really a personal preference and ultimately a business decision. However, it is the recommended course of action.  Just because there are relatively few competitors in the mini-www of internet ready mobile devices, this doesn’t mean that it will always stay that way.  If the fast-paced growth of registered .mobi domains is any indication, it won’t be long until you will need to dish out some serious cash to obtain top rankings even in the mobile website market.  By locking in your position today in the mobile website world, you’ll be making it easier on yourself tomorrow to grab a bigger share of this ever-growing market of internet users.