One of my old classmates posted an article which shows that searching from mobile devices is booming. The total number of searchers in this country using mobile phones grew about 26 percent between March and December of last year, from 90.1 million to 113.1 million searchers. On tablets that number grew to 19 percent, although some tablets are counted as phones as well based on the OS and how the browser is setup. Meanwhile, searching from a traditional desktop computer or laptop went down 6% from November 2011 to November 2012.
This is significant because more and more people are not locked to their home or job to get to a search engine, the main source of revenue for companies like Google and advertising for businesses. People with emails linked to their smartphones check their email much sooner, so that’s another thing to take into consideration. Also, folks on mobile devices are more inclined to use map apps either for directions or to simply find something nearby, and reviews and ratings will most likely be attached to these locations (either in the map application itself or linked from a third party website).
Looking at all of that, it would make even more sense to make sure your website will work and function properly for everyone and everything. Definitely have a clean, polished and dynamic main website, but also make sure it’s responsive or redirects to a format better accessible to those on the go.
