• 13Jul2011
  • Hayley Profile Picture
  • The Importance of Mobile Device Accessibility

    Posted in Website Design by Hayley

  • With almost one in three mobile phone users now owning a smartphone, our thirst for knowledge does not stop when we walk away from our computers.

  • We are living in a time where for most people internet access is highly important. 89% of smartphone owners will use it throughout the day to access the internet, for a variety of things such as research, social networking, watching videos and shopping.

    Google recently ran a study on the purchasing habits of 'smartphone searchers' to try and understand how people are using their mobile devices to make informative decisions when shopping.

    Here are just some of the findings:

    Where smartphones are most commonly used:
    93% at home
    87% on-the-go
    77% in a shop
    73% restaurant
    72% at work

    Most common types of searches on smartphones:
    57% news
    51% dining/restaurant information
    51% navigational
    49% entertainment
    47% shopping
    40% sports
    37% games

    Most common types of websites visited on smartphones:
    77% search engines
    65% social networking
    46% retail websites
    43% video sharing websites
    38% general consumer websites

    And most interestingly...

    Actions taken after accessing local search results:
    61% called the business
    59% visited the business
    58% looked up the business on a map
    54% visited the website
    36% made an in-store purchase
    22% made an online purchase
    22% recommended business to someone else
    20% read or wrote a review about the business
    19% added the business to favourites list

    From the information gathered, it’s clear to see that mobile devices are becoming an extension of our desktop computer and are transforming our shopping behaviour. Its important to remember that people searching through their smartphone will usually have different needs to someone browsing the internet, on a desktop PC. Smartphone searchers are generally on-the-go and have a need that they want fulfilled quickly and accurately. If you do not have an operational mobile version of your website you risk losing business as consumers tire of excessive page loading times and incompatible forms or functions.

    Did you know?

    Google also gives more value to mobile sites in searches made from a mobile device. So if your competitors do not yet run a mobile version of their site you are missing out on an opportunity to rank higher than they do for your keywords in mobile search.

    With more and more people owning smartphones and using them to access the web for search, combined with statistics like these generated by Google, many online businesses should be asking themselves 'can we afford NOT to have a mobile version of our website?'

1 response to "The Importance of Mobile Device Accessibility"
  1. Nadine Stevens says:February 14th, 2012
  2. Hi, thanks for the knowledge. Mobile devices are increasingly becoming important these days for almost all people want to do business and exchange data wherever and whenever they want to.

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