There is a disquieting trend happening with SEO and organic traffic. You may have noticed that your organic web traffic is down for your brand keywords. If not, it’s worth a check. This is particularly puzzling because it is happening to companies who seem to be doing all the right SEO things. They are ranking well for their keywords, but when you look at the analytics you see that organic traffic is down double digit year over year. What gives?

The steep drop is centered abound brand keywords such as “Costso”, “Costco Hours”, or “Home Depot address”.  It is important to distinguish between non brand keywords such as “home improvement store in Colorado Springs”. This type of traffic is not being impacted in the same way.

The good news is that there is no corresponding drop in business as you’d expect.  So where did they all go?

It’s mobile traffic that is causing the precipitous drop. Mobile search now accounts for more than 50% of traffic and that number is growing due to Google’s push toward better user interaction and catering to mobile search.

It is now possible to get all the information you need without every visiting a company’s website. Through your smart phone, it is now possible to:

* Push to call

* See where the business is located on a map

* See the business’ reviews

* One click to the Google + Page to see exact hours and company information

* Even click to get directions

So what should you do?

Focus on maximizing your Google+ My Business Page (formerly Google + Local). Someone searching on a mobile device is generally impatient, in a hurry and needs their information in the minimal amount of clicks. This is the new normal.