Brafton has reported on comScore data that showed Google and Bing command both the desktop search space as well as the mobile landscape. While industry insiders continue to tout the importance of mobile marketing and search, a lot of consumers still choose larger screens over iPhones and Android devices. Why? Because many mobile sites are hard to navigate and the user experience isn’t up to par.
This might inspire marketers to beef up their sites to create more acceptable (let alone positive) user experiences, but there’s evidence that sometimes the problem is the small screen – not the site itself. A new EPiServer survey found that 37 percent of consumers agree that many mobile sites are too difficult to move around on – up 5 percent from 2011. More, these poor experiences leave sour tastes in consumers’ mouths, and they’re unlikely to visit the pages again in the future. Forty-seven percent of surveyed internet users say if an app or page is hard to use they will delete it immediately – up 6 percent year-over-year.
Mobile search should remain in every marketer’s mind, but focusing on content writing to reach desktop users may still be a stronger approach. Consumers engage with brands several times before they convert, and while having a powerful social and email presence can reach on-the-go customers, content marketing reaches those people who research from home (and on the move).
