Kitcatt Nohr Digitas

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More than one in every ten visits to websites now comes from a smartphone. according to new research by Latitude Digital Marketing. If you are the sort of person who likes detail, it's 11.5% to be precise. And how much growth is that, I hear you ask. Why, it's a 202% increase year on year in mobile web traffic. And that's a sensational figure.

But what does it mean?

Well, it means that we really need to start making sure our sites are properly optimised for mobile. Because those 11.5% of people are precisely the people we and our clients want to visit our sites. How do we know that? Because having a smartphone suggests they also have money (Those things aren't cheap, are they?) Better than that, we know that 70% percent of mobile web visitors are using an iPhone (and those things are seriously expensive). So we need to make sure we pay them very close attention indeed; Big buttons, simple navigation, short copy and high levels of functionality.

What are people doing on the mobile web?

It's hardly a revelation to hear that people use different devices to consume content in different ways. But it is useful to discover the facts about the role mobile internet plays in their lives. This research positions the smartphone as an administrative workhorse – always on, location specific and used for personal benefit. So they're organising their social lives, finding their friends, and generally getting on with stuff.

And when are they doing it?

The 'always-thereness' of smartphones means users are easy to reach via them during all hours. So if you want to get them to do something on your website, you know how and where to find them. That's great news if you've got an online gaming site, but possibly not so good news for selling to them directly through the web.

Is there any bad news?

Yes. People are much more prepared to use the mobile web when the weather is good. So this weather is likely to be very bad news indeed.