No doubt, the buzz around mobile has increased nearly geometrically of late.  With good reason:  already, over half of all users access the Internet via a mobile device;  and that will grow to 90% by 2015, according to IDC Research VP Karsten Weide.  And don’t be misled that all that activity comes from pedestrians looking for an Italian restaurant or a mocha latte;  your prospects are also killing travel waiting-time by searching on topics that are top-of-mind with them at the time …which may well include the problem your B2B offering solves.

We’ve done our bit to keep this tsunami top-of-mind with clients, through posts such as this one.  But over the past year, mobile has acquired perhaps the most powerful ally possible: Google. Consider these milestones…

• July:  Google added “Mobilize” to Google Sites (one of the myriad Google Apps available for just $5/month/user), a feature that helps users build mobile-friendly sites.
• July:  Google’s Mobile Ads Team launched the Mobile Ads Blog.
• September:  Google disclosed that its Adwords quality score will now include a mobile optimization component (for mobile ad campaigns).
• November:  Google presents webinar entitled “Making Mobile-Friendly Websites: Best Practices in Action.”  Missed it? …you can get the pdf deck here.

But all that was just preamble.  On November 1, Google rolled out its GoMo initiative, centered around its howtogomo.com website.  It’s complete with all the resources needed for businesses to learn about what makes a good mobile site and to start building one …even including a GoMoMeter that shows you how your current site looks to mobile users (which is likely to be a bit of a shock, if you’ve never viewed your own site while on the road).

So why Google’s mobile focus?

Well, if you’re cynical, you can zoom in on the tea leaf that Google’s mobile effort grew out of the Adwords team …implying that its main interest is in protecting its share of the rapidly growing mobile PPC revenue stream.  And so far, its share of search is 95% in the mobile world, vs. a mere 65% of all online searches (per a very thoughtful post by Michael Boland over on Search Engine Watch).

Or we can take Google at its word, from the blogpost announcing howtogomo.com: “Every day more and more of your customers are looking for you… on mobile devices.  If you don’t have a site that works for mobile, you’re missing out. 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site that’s not mobile-friendly.  On the other hand, customers embrace sites that are built for mobile – consumer engagement increases by 85% with a website designed for mobile devices.”

Also, we can view this as quite consistent with Google’s long-standing efforts to make the Web a better, more useful place for all of us:  which includes the Panda algorithm updates, PPC quality scores, factoring load time into rankings …and now mobile, where access technology has temporarily outpaced the ability or willingness of existing websites to adapt.

Whatever mix of reasons you end up believing, clearly it’s a win/win/win for Google, brands and mobile users when businesses optimize their sites for mobile.  Help is now available – from your friendly Web-design consultants, and now from Google – and your mobile prospects are at your door, waiting impatiently;  so it’s definitely time for action.

Got a mobile site optimization war story? …please share it in the Comments.