Mobile search engines remain baffling entities to many advertisers and mobile marketers eager to harness the emergent power of mobile search. Unlike the traditional web, mobile search engines – to a degree – represent a different animal; a collective body defined by elusive bots and complicated algorithms. But, in the big picture, optimizing websites for those using mobile search engines shouldn’t be as intimidating or confusing as it proves to be for so many.

When it comes to search engine optimization, SEO is SEO through and through. And SEO best practices for the traditional web should not be totally disregarded when developing an SEO plan for your mobile ambitions. Heading tags, title tags, and alt tags, for example, remain vital to mobile SEO and should be heavily emphasized.

While there are myriad strategies – some complex, other simplistic – that can be applied to a variety of mobile marketing efforts, according to Bryson Meunier, Associate Director of Content Solutions at Resolution Media, basic mobility, as an example, remains one of the most important factors in cultivating a successful mobile presence rooted in effective SEO.

“Mobility is a ranking factor for mobile search,” says Meunier, “and not optimizing a mobile site could make it more difficult to appear in competitive nonbranded searches where mobility is a factor. Likewise, having an optimized mobile site could make it easier to appear for competitive nonbranded keywords where mobility is a factor.”

From exposing your brand to ultimately defining it, the masterful usage of mobile SEO can never be undervalued. And with IDC estimating that there will be in excess of one billion users of the mobile web by the end of 2010, there will also be no shortage of opportunities for discovery as a result of your mobile SEO efforts – no matter how big or small.