I’ve written and spoken a lot about how important mobile is to your web presence and your digital marketing efforts. Sometimes I feel like a broken record, but the shift to mobile devices is that transforming and important to your business.
In 2017, mobile is the mainstream default usage for most consumers. On Black Friday this past year, I even did most of my holiday shopping on my phone in the car on my way home from Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving. Of course, I was a passenger, not the driver, but I found the whole experience to be easy and convenient.
More and more people I talk to say their home computers are gathering dust, while they use their phone or tablet for most online activity. Is this true in your household?
Consider that:
- More searches happen on mobile than on desktops. Google has now combined the mobile and desktop search indexes – showing the mobile ranking to everyone.
- More social media happens on mobile than desktop. In fact 1 out of every 5 minutes on our phones is spent on Facebook!
- More emails are opened on mobile than desktop.
- In November 2016, mobile web browsing surpassed desktop browsing.

Source: BGR
When you consider that the smartphone is only 10 years old, and 5 years ago only 1/3 of Americans owned one, the fast growth of mobile is astonishing. Today most people even say they can’t live without one!
Hopefully, your digital marketing efforts and web site are already taking this into consideration. But are we now entering a post-mobile world?
OK Google, Alexa, Siri, and Hey Cortana
“Computer. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
We may not yet have a computer that will fix our tea like the one in Star Trek, but personal assistants are trying to get there.
Google has OK Google and Google Home, Amazon has Alexa on the Echo and other devices, Apple has Siri and Microsoft’s assistant is called Cortana.
Using voice search on our smartphones, watches and other devices in our home has been exploding.
According to Google, 20% of Google searches on mobile devices are voice searches and that doesn’t include searches through personal assistants like Siri, Alexa and Cortana.
Voice recognition technologies are getting much better, and affordable voice-enabled devices for the home have made voice search increasingly popular. Many people tried to get the Amazon Echo this past holiday season, but found they were sold out.
A new report says shipments of connected speakers like Echo or Google Home are expected to be 24.5 million in 2017, up from 6.5 million in 2016. (Source: Android Authority)
This has implications for local businesses and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most people, when they use voice search, would prefer to have a direct voice answer. Consider:
“What time does Joe’s Pizza open today?”
“Does Joe’s pizza deliver?”
“Call Joe’s Pizza”
Welcome to the post-mobile world. I’ll be sharing more information with you this year on voice search and how it may affect your content and SEO strategy. Watch this space (or sign up for my email newsletter to get posts sent to you)!
BTW – if you have an Amazon Echo, you can finally say “Computer” to command it.