Report: Nearly 1 in 4 Website Visits Came From Smartphones and Tablets in December
According to Walker Sands, a public relations and digital marketing agency for B2B and technology companies, 23 percent of total website visits in December came from smartphones and tablets, up 84 percent from December 2011 and up 283 percent from January 2011.
While these types of reports are easy to grow numb to, this is yet another call for marketers to wake up and smell the mobile coffee if they haven’t already.
Back in January 2011, Walker Sands found that 1 in 6 total website visits came from mobile devices. Thirty-five percent of mobile traffic came from iPhones, according to the company, up from 31 percent from 2011. Meanwhile, 17 percent of mobile traffic came from iPads and iPad Minis, up from 16 percent in 2011.
Google’s Android mobile OS accounted for 43 percent of mobile traffic, down from 46 percent in 2011. BlackBerry held onto 2 percent of mobile traffic in December, down from 4 percent in 2011.
“Mobile is no longer an option, but a necessity,” said John Fairley, director of Web services and social media at Walker Sands. “Companies must develop a user-friendly mobile site to keep pace with traffic that consistently doubles year-over-year.”
Another takeaway is that businesses have to be mindful of four possible screen sizes: desktops, full tablets, smaller tablets and smartphones. “A site design that renders correctly on each device is crucial for success in developing a mobile presence,” Fairley said.
Back in the fall, comScore reported that mobile phones and tablets accounted for about 1 in 8, or 13.3 percent of total Internet page views in August, which is nearly double the share of Internet traffic those devices had in August 2011.
While reports like these highlight the growth of mobile Web browsing, marketers can’t forget about the importance of mobile apps. According to Flurry, consumers each spent an average of 127 minutes per day with mobile apps in December, up 35 percent from 94 minutes per day spent with apps in December last year.
Here’s a visual summary of Walker Sands’ most recent findings:
Walker Sands sampled 12 U.S.-based clients for this report and collected traffic data from Google Analtyics.
By Jason Hahn
