Over a year ago, Google officially announced that there were more searches done on mobile devices than done from a desktop computer! That was around May 2015 already.
Changing the way we design our websites
Back in the early 2000s, I used to spend a tone of time designing websites looking at my desktop only. The idea of checking the site on my phone didn’t really come to mind. Year after year I started to see that mobile was taking a larger piece of the search pie. Moving forward to about 2010, we were still designing for desktop and making sure it “looked good” for mobile. Then comes April 2015. That’s when Google started to roll out the mobile friendly update. And shortly after they announced that mobile had taken over desktop.
It’s moving fast. In the last 3-4 years, we’re not just checking our phone or tablet just make sure it “looks good”. We’re making sure that the user experience is as good as we can get it.
For those working with websites for over a decade, it is time to start thinking mobile first. Of course make sure it “looks good” on desktop as it’s not going to disappear anytime soon. But you need to design your site for mobile first.
What a change, hey!
Is this true for every website?
No. At this time, many websites still have more desktop visits and it may stay that way for a while for many of them. Some sites are more B2B where the office employee will do much of his browsing and purchases during the day at his computer (desktop).
You need to look at your analytics and see how people are actually coming to your website. You can find this data in Google Analytics under Overview –> Mobile.
What if my traffic is still about 75% desktop?
Then, you may spend a little more time on your desktop design though always make sure your website is mobile friendly.
Conclusion
In 2016, people simply expect to see a user friendly mobile site. We’re in the era of responsive websites (responsive here means adjusting to the size of any device). So think mobile even though traffic to your site is still mainly desktop.
🙂
Patrick
Reference: http://searchengineland.com/its-official-google-says-more-searches-now-on-mobile-than-on-desktop-220369
