Good thing Dave Chaffey tweeted a link to Gary Robinson’s Your 60 Second Mobile Review post yesterday. I got hooked on this immediately, and was indulging myself in the analysis of my site’s mobile visitors literally seconds after reading Gary’s post.
My Observations:
- Approximately 3.5% of visitors view my website via mobile devices
- Regardless of how small the above percentage may seem, it accounts for (or translates into) thousands of visitors every year
- The top 3 operating systems over the past four months have been: iPhone (58%), Android (13.6%), and iPad (12.9%)
- The lowest bounce rate registered with “mobile devices” has been with iPad users (natural, isn’t it?)
My Conclusions:
- Start monitoring this particular set of stats more frequently/closely
- Work on optimizing my mobile visitors’ experience (especially those accessing the website on their iPhones and iPads)
My Screenshot:
The fourth quarter is quickly approaching (yes, the first day of calendar Fall is here already!), but there is still time to analyze your websites, and make them (especially those of them that are in any way related to the Q4 shopping season) more mobile-friendly.
Thanks for sharing my article Geno, glad you liked it.
The point of the article series is to pick out little things that marketers can do that will make a big diference to their own performance and that of the business they own or work for – so I’m glad this particular post spurred you into action!
Now to your post. Firstly, I agree with your conclusions 100%! We have to start monitoring mobile traffic and activity now. It’s going to become more and more important.
Optimising the experience for users will be the next challenge. You don’t necessarily need to make a separate mobile site, you can detect its a mobile device accessing the site and display an alternative CSS template instead.
Also for anyone using WordPress to host a blog, there is a great plugin called WP Touch that will do the work for you. It produces an iPhone style interface, with an option to switch to the desktop template if preferred.
Secondly, very impressed with the iPad stats for your site. I’m not seeing that on mine yet – Blackberry and Android are next in line after iPhone.
Gary, thank you for chiming in. Great comments! I haven’t heard of WP Touch before. Will go looking after it as soon as I post this reply.
Yes, I was impressed with the iPad stats as well. BlackBerry came 4th, but showed the highest bounce rate (I know exactly why; I have a BlackBerry, and I know my site isn’t looking good on it), and was still considerably less popular than iPad.
Once again, thank you for a post that led me to analyze my mobile traffic stats, and, consequently, think more seriously in the direction of site optimization for mobile users. Off to look for that WP plugin now…
Happy to help. If you want to see the WP Touch plugin in action, I have it up on my blog – http://www.itsdigitalmarketing.co.uk
As I read a lot of blogs on my iPhone (it’s an addiction), I find the sites that use WP Touch much quicker to load, more usable and easier to read.