Pokémon, mobile SEO and more: Our top mobile columns for 2016

We’ve already known for quite some time that mobile is the future of marketing, but 2016 drove that point home even further, with mobile making up nearly half of all online ad revenues in the first half of the year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. And as more people continue to eschew desktops in favor of their smartphones, it’s clear that marketers are paying attention.

It’s little surprise, then, that readers were interested in honing their mobile SEO skills, seeking insights into how to drive more organic traffic to their content from mobile searchers. After all, in a world where most searches are done from a mobile device, if you’re not doing mobile SEO, you’re not doing SEO right.

The wild success of Pokémon Go over the summer sparked the interest of many readers, as marketers were quick to ask how they could capitalize on the augmented reality game for mobile. And while the Pokémon phenomenon has finally peaked, that hasn’t stopped marketers from looking more closely at location-based trends; readers wanted to learn more about what to expect for the future of location-based technologies.

Meanwhile, our most popular mobile column offered best practices for push notifications — because even marketers who’ve nailed the location-based marketing game will struggle to reach consumers via push if they can’t break out of the noise and deliver value to users.

Want more? Check out our top 10 Mobile Marketing columns published on Marketing Land in 2016.

1. 5 must-do push notification best practices for mobile marketers by Josh Todd, published on 4/20/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 137, Google+ 24, LinkedIn 263
2. The six key components of mobile SEO in 2016 by Bryson Meunier, published on 3/10/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 2,113, Google+ 116, LinkedIn 315
3. Four key mobile and location-based trends for 2016 by Aaron Strout, published on 1/15/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 280, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 854
4. 5 reasons to keep doing mobile SEO even though ads are everywhere by Bryson Meunier, published on 5/5/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 682, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 324
5. How Pokémon Go will level up local advertising by Adam Dorfman, published on 7/14/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 333, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 342
6. Surviving Google’s new policy against interstitial ads by Lei Sun, published on 1/7/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 344, Google+ 96, LinkedIn 138
7. Mobile vs. desktop: Are you optimizing both experiences? by Aaron Strout, published on 5/5/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 222, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 298
8. The future of location-based services by Aaron Strout, published on 3/10/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 146, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 344
9. SMS marketing: An often forgotten goldmine in a good mobile strategy by Brian Patterson, published on 1/20/2016.
   Social activity: Facebook 336, Google+ 0, LinkedIn 578
10. Google’s AMP Viewer: the Tinder UX for content? by Barb Palser, published on 9/9/2016.
    Social activity: Facebook 125, Google+ 21, LinkedIn 136

Methodology: Columns published in 2016 are ranked in order of page views measured by Google Analytics. Data includes all columns published through November 30, 2016. Social data provided by SharedCount.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Desiree Everts DeNunzio

Desiree Everts DeNunzio is Features Editor at Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. She has more than a decade of experience editing and writing for online and print publications in the technology and marketing industries. Previously, she was an editor for PBS Idea Lab, where she managed content from the entrepreneurs who are transforming digital media. She's also had stints at CNET, the world's biggest tech news site, Wired Magazine and GigaOm. When she's not at her keyboard, you can find her either glued to her Kindle or hiking the hills of West Marin.