Yesterday, SearchEngineLand reported on a study by Hitwise that tells us how mobile is becoming more important than ever. Mobile search now constitutes 60 percent of all search queries globally. While this number varies by industry, combining this truth with Google’s mobile friendliness update last year means that a mobile friendly site is more important than ever before. We’re going to talk about some of the highlights from that report.
Food & Beverage is Mobile King
Across all industries, those in food & beverage receive the greatest number of mobile searches as a percentage of all searches. Over 70% of all search queries for food and beverage related topics are done on a mobile device. This means restaurants lacking a mobile friendly presence on Google are at a severe competitive disadvantage compared to other restaurants in the area. If you have noticed that your business has been steadily drying up over the past couple years and you have not updated your site to make it mobile friendly that is probably the reason why.
Banking and Finance Remains Desktop Focused
The good news for companies in banking or financial sectors is that they have a comparatively low percentage of search volume on mobile as compared to desktop. This makes sense when you consider these industries deal with sensitive information. When you combine that with a lack of consumer confidence in phone security features, it means you are more likely to see financial transactions done from desktop rather than from your phone.
However, that does not mean these sectors are completely out of the woods. While it’s true that only 39% of searches in this category are started on mobile, this is not uniform across search types. Those looking for ATMs, for instance, are generally on mobile. Interestingly enough, 73% of searches for 30-year-mortgage also start on mobile. Credit report searches, meanwhile, only start on mobile devices 38% of the time.
Most Industries Mobile Focused
Of the industries included in the Hitwise report, the only ones where search started on mobile less than half the time are banking, entertainment, and real estate, at 39%, 42%, and 48% respectively. All other industries in the report had more searches start on mobile than on desktop. In addition to Food and Beverage, those sitting at the top include Health and Sports searches each sitting at 68%. The median industry was a tied between automotive and lifestyle at 62%.
The Takeaway
Digital marketers have been stressing the importance of mobile friendliness for years now. It is clear based on this report that we have already reached and passed the tipping point where your mobile site may be worth more than your desktop site (depending on industry). It is no longer optional – it is as essential to your digital marketing efforts as the original website was.
A responsive design that fits the window in both landscape mode and portrait mode, is optimized for mobile use, and uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) standards is needed to give your business a competitive edge in the marketplace today.
If you are interested in reviewing the report for yourself, you can download it here. Please note that registration is required to download your copy!
