We've written about the rise of mobile and what it means for internet marketing a good bit in recent weeks, and specific ally touched on how paid search performed over the holiday shopping period. Also important is the explosion of mobile across the globe and the international SEO implications that follow. An intriguing element to mobile's growth is tracking its impact on specific international markets and how it is changing the internet in those countries.

Let's look at Australia where the mobile market is growing at an unparalleled pace in developed markets. The smartphone penetration rate is 37% in the country which is above that of both the US and UK. Interestingly, up until last week, Australians were kept to 3G speeds, but with the launch of the HTC Velocity 4G Android smartphone, Telstra's 4G network can now be utilized by mobile devices further opening the window of opportunity for more immediate mobile growth in the country.

Most relevant, however, is the searching behavior that Australians exhibit on their mobile devices. For marketing professionals to utilize international SEO and pay per click in order to capitalize on the increased mobile traffic, Australians need to continue their high degree of mobile searching. At present, 46% of Australian smartphone users characterize the searching they do as "high" on their mobile device. This number is promising, but its increase would only help the marketers' cause.

Google & What To Do
Enter Google, who in an insightful piece by its Google Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Nick Leeder, seems poised to capitalize on the countries' growing mobile ad markets save for one challenge; almost 80% of advertisers are not running a mobile site. The opportunity for retailers is immense, and as aptly pointed out by Leeder, with 25% of shopping queries originating from a mobile device, retailers not optimized for mobile clearly miss out. Further, Leeder expressed that Google has a vested interest in such retailers going mobile so that ads can follow as Google's revenue and growth is largely based on their advertisers' success, and encouraging such stands as Google's biggest challenge in 2012. One thing companies can do now though according to the managing director, is simply create a mobile site as a fancy mobile app is not needed immediately, step one is simply a presence.

For those that recognize both the present opportunity and where the market is headed, they can certainly get a leg up on their competitors by establishing a mobile presence, even partnering with an expert SEO company to create a coordinated strategy including paid search, SEO, and social media campaigns that could work together to maximize and capitalize their mobile traffic. So follow the mobile market Down Under and see its continuous impact on… searchers, Australian retailers, International SEO firms, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others.