This question is not as popular as I think it should be. My answer is kind of simple…. Think of it this way: Can you remember the last time you saw a group of people and nobody in that group was checking their tablet or their smart phone?? Neither can I. It’s THAT important to your business and to your website.
As the internet matures and Americans become more attached to our mobile devices, those of us marketing to them will have to get serious about mobile traffic.
My Wake Up Call
At the end of 2011, I went through the stats for all the websites I manage or own. The amount of traffic from mobile devices at least doubled from January 2011 to December 2011. It doubled in one year!!
On the newer sites or general information websites, mobile traffic averaged around 18-20%. Older and niche specific websites saw on average of 25-30% was mobile traffic. No matter how you look at it, That’s a lot of traffic (and growing). A lot of potential business just from the mobile world.
For brick and mortar type of businesses, the number one source of their internet/mobile traffic was Google Places. With social media coming in second.
On average, 13% of all my traffic came from a social media profile. (Facebook, twitter, G+, etc…) That percentage rose when it came from a mobile device. (example:someone on their iPad, clicking a link in twitter or other platform).
With that much traffic coming from mobile devices, you will see a lot more websites convert over to the WordPress platform. Starting in 2012, most reputable theme makers will adapt what’s call “Responsive Web Design”. Meaning their WordPress theme will adapt to the mobile device. I use Genesis Themes on all my WordPress sites and they are already converting their theme library to RWD.
Final Answer
Unless you want to alienate over a quarter of your sites visitors, I would start to take mobile traffic very seriously. Make your website more user friendly and adaptable. Make sure your website(s) is connected to your most popular social platforms and you are keeping everything fresh and original.
Keeping everything connected and fresh, will make the search engines happy and help drive more potential customers to your business.
Need help with this? Give me a call and let’s talk.
Mark Anthony
