Before proclaiming "Let’s build a mobile App!" here are 3 things you should consider:

1)    Visibility - making the public aware of your App
2)    Retention - how long before users delete your App
3)    Return - probably not so quantitative

Visibility

Visibility is written about abundantly on the web, but here’s some ways we can categorize the how users locate things:

• Search- Assumes users know about it
• Browse-Users sifting through the 10,000+ other Apps in your category or navigate to it by association to another App or company
• Advertising
• Word of Mouth-Figure out how to go viral
• Spotlight-Marketplace highlights are like winning the lottery or submit it to pro App reviewers

• Are you trying to make a quick buck off the $1.99 purchase price? Unless you produce a very popular/viral App,statistics and interviews generally tells that you won’t make back your initial investment quickly, if at all.
• Are you trying to create a branded tool or utility that's a constant reminder of your brand? Consider visibility:With 300,000 Apps available, is your idea a completely new one, or a slightly different version of many existing ones?     
• Does your App just communicate information which a user can’t just as easily search the web or navigate directly to?
• What is the benefit to the company or users for having your App instead of a competitor’s App, visiting your website or visiting a competitor’s website?

• Content is dependent on an internet connection (although that could be changing shortly)
• Native Apps have access to hardware features (although HTML5 is seeking to remedy that with access to accelerometers, GPS and other features)
• You can sell a native App (although I wouldn’t rule this out for web Apps just yet even though the marketplace is a convenient way to purchase Apps)

• Content doesn’t need to be approved for Apple devices
• Content can reach far beyond native devices to all internet capable devices (assuming advanced browser capabilities available on smart phones) 
• Content indexed as mobile content will be pointed to by mobile optimized search engines

When I first started the LinkedIn Healthcare UX group, I couldn’t wait to start talking about social media. Facebook and Twitter users have found all kinds of ways to use those platforms to trade support and information about diseases, disorders and personal health struggles.

I wanted to get people talking about all the possibilities – and the problems – associated with using social media in the healthcare space.  I listed my favorite healthcare websites. And I asked the group’s members to share their experiences and send recommendations about sites they thought leveraged social media particularly well.

We came up with this list:

•  PatientsLikeMe

Recently, Google updated their algorithm to make it easier for users to view larger number of results from a single site based on a strong interest in a particular domain. This update allows for more than two listings for one domain (such as Madpow.com) to be shown on their search engine result page (SERP). Previously, Google only allowed two results per domain. This change enables you to dominate the first SERP and display up to eight domain listings. This will happen only when a search user includes that specific root domain within their search query. This gives you a great opportunity to improve the user experience even before a visitor reaches your website.

The example Google uses to detail this change is the American Museum of Natural History website. A query for “exhibitions at amnh” displays not only the main exhibitions page, but also a few of the most popular featured exhibition pages. Athough this new feature targets large, content rich sites already featuring Google sitelinks, average sized sites can also benefit. Since this update is specific to domain searches, sites can increase their first page listings (up to eight) by having a well constructed website hierarchy with rich snippets.

While not all sites are as robust as the American Museum of Natural History, you can still increase site listings for searches containing your domain. By creating a site that transfers search value from the main home page throughout the subpages and inserting rich snippets for Google review, you can position your site to rank more than twice on searches containing your domain. This practice gives users more specific choices to click through to the most relevant site content, ultimately creating a highly user friendly experience prior to reaching your website.

You should focus your website construction to meet Google best practices for search value transfer by crafting a hierarchy that flows naturally to each subsection. Additionally, you should learn how to include rich snippets and structured data for your main subsections to improve the search experience. The overall effort will result in up to eight listings for your domain on the first page of the SERP. This means you could expect to capture increased click through rates by having 80% of the organic listings which account for up to 60% of the on page click throughs (via SEOMad.com).

The new Google algorithm change can help you capture domain specific search queries and provide a positive user experience even before the user reaches your site. Make the proper website updates and utilize this feature to improve branded click throughs. Learn more about the change at the official Google Webmaster Blog here.