If you’re in the travel industry and you’re not optimizing for mobile search, you need to stop what you’re doing and set up a meeting with your web development and search marketing team now! (You just happen to be reading a blog by such a team as we speak.) According to a report from emarketer, nearly 50% of users searching for travel terms in 2015 will turn to their mobile devices, such as smartphones, to book their next hotel, flight, or other reservation. What makes this number most alarming is that 50% of the 128.8 million people expected to perform a mobile search for travel brands in 2015 equals out to over 64 million potential leads. If your brand isn’t mobile ready, are you willing to take that risk?

In addition, over a third of the search results appearing on mobile devices can vary from desktop search results. This means that even if your desktop site visits are doing well, you could potentially be missing out on huge amounts of traffic. To make sure you’re capturing these potential leads as we move closer to the new year, here are 3 tips for optimizing your site for mobile search.

Use responsive web design. The best way to ensure that your website performs well in mobile search is to utilize responsive web design. Making sure that your site appears beautifully on any device is crucial for creating a good first impression, as well as making the user experience as smooth as possible, from simple browsing to making a reservation.

Optimize your SEO and SEM campaigns. Making your site as easy to find as possible may sound obvious, but it’s an often overlooked piece of the marketing puzzle. From a killer SEO strategy to a well-crafted SEM campaign, these methods can drive both organic and paid traffic to your mobile optimized site, turning those visitors into potential customers.

Speed up page loading time. Mobile devices seem to work at the speed of light, but if your slow website impedes that experience, you could lose over half of your potential customers. Ensure your pages load as fast as possible even on slower connections. With many users on 3G or 4G Internet connections, and sometimes with spotty service, it’s absolutely critical that your pages load quickly or visitors will abandon your site before ever converting.

Mobile search for travel brands is here to stay, and may even replace the majority of desktop-based search one day soon. The time to act is now, for the businesses that adapt the quickest and take mobile seriously will be the victors. Need help taking your mobile search to the next level? Drop us a line.