The “Mobile-Ocalyspe” is almost a distant memory in the digital marketing community, having hit its peak sometime maybe 7 years ago when SEO experts were confident that Google was going to implicitly separate search results for mobile and desktop searches based on how mobile-ready and desktop-ready your website was. The differences ended up being marginal, even with websites that were often on mobile far off from what could be considered mobile-friendly or responsive. That doesn’t mean that the user experience still suffered tremendously, resulting in poorly mobile-optimized websites not being able to convert regardless of how much traffic they got.
It’s pretty easy to get close to optimal responsiveness today with the changes to web development best practices, innate capabilities of popular CMS platforms like WordPress, and additional plugins that further create a great mobile user experience. With all the work being done to be mobile-first, it’s important to confirm that’s still where people are going to be searching the most. There’s no logical reason to think that people wouldn’t continue to do so, but it’s important to look at the rate at which they do, the devices that are being used, and the consideration to the evolution of the dimensions these devices are actually in since our definition of “mobile” may be evolving much quicker than the concept of the device designation.
To start, let’s check to see if mobile search has continued its explosive trend as a search method from 2018 to 2019 (and sometimes 2018 compared to 2017) like it did when it took off (in our clients’ industries) in around 2014-2015. We are looking at a handful of our clients’ analytics in different regions/practice areas:
| Criminal Defense South Florida | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 49.01% | 44.54% | 6.46% |
| 2018 | 59.46% | 36.06% | 4.49% |
| change | 21.32% | -19.04% | -30.50% |
| 2019 | 54.43% | 41.34% | 4.13% |
| change | -8.46% | 14.64% | -8.02% |
| Criminal Defense South Florida | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 49.01% | 44.54% | 6.46% |
| 2018 | 59.46% | 36.06% | 4.49% |
| change | 21.32% | -19.04% | -30.50% |
| 2019 | 54.43% | 41.34% | 4.13% |
| change | -8.46% | 14.64% | -8.02% |
| Criminal Defense Louisiana | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 55.21% | 44.35% | 3.43% |
| 2018 | 59.37% | 37.24% | 3.39% |
| change | 7.53% | -16.03% | -1.17% |
| 2019 | 60.60% | 36.54% | 2.86% |
| change | 2.07% | -1.88% | -15.63% |
| Arizona Personal Injury | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 19.31% | 77.87% | 2.82% |
| 2018 | 26.01% | 71.69% | 2.29% |
| change | 34.70% | -7.94% | -18.79% |
| 2019 | 35.59% | 62.32% | 2.08% |
| change | 36.83% | -13.07% | -9.17% |
| Criminal Defense Central Florida | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 66.89% | 28.72% | 4.40% |
| 2018 | 68.95% | 27.17% | 3.88% |
| change | 3.08% | -5.40% | -11.82% |
| 2019 | 68.88% | 28.05% | 3.06% |
| change | -0.10% | 3.24% | -21.13% |
| Portland Personal Injury | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 42.41% | 52.50% | 5.29% |
| 2018 | 61.73% | 34.29% | 4.34% |
| change | 45.56% | -34.69% | -17.96% |
| 2019 | 68.60% | 26.03% | 5.37% |
| change | 11.13% | -24.09% | 23.73% |
| Bankruptcy Louisiana | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 66.26% | 26.95% | 6.79% |
| 2018 | 66.34% | 26.37% | 7.29% |
| change | 0.12% | -2.15% | 7.36% |
| 2019 | 62.96% | 32.64% | 4.40% |
| change | -5.09% | 21.11% | -39.64% |
| Estate Planning Wisconsin | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2018 | 36.19% | 59.71% | 4.10% |
| change | |||
| 2019 | 41.34% | 54.43% | 4.13% |
| change | 14.23% | -8.84% | 0.73% |
| Personal Injury North Jersey | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 26.90% | 69.60% | 3.51% |
| 2018 | 33.92% | 62.28% | 3.80% |
| change | 26.10% | -10.52% | 8.26% |
| 2019 | 38.13% | 59.48% | 2.39% |
| change | 12.41% | -4.50% | -37.11% |
| Personal Injury South Florida | |||
| Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | |
| 2017 | 29.58% | 66.28% | 4.13% |
| 2018 | 32.86% | 63.30% | 3.84% |
| change | 11.09% | -4.50% | -7.02% |
| 2019 | 42.07% | 54.81% | 3.11% |
| change | 28.03% | -13.41% | -19.01% |
Do People Still Search on Tablets?
Keep in mind this isn’t including their increase in actual traffic – just the difference in how the visits to their website were comprised. From these general stats (it is a small sample) we do see the numbers coming in from mobile starting to slow down, more so that they are already at a dominant percentage (oftentimes almost as high as 70%). The bigger takeaway initially is the fact that tablet usage as a device for search is really slowing down. I’ve personally seen it turn more into a diminutive streaming device in most public and professional settings.
We know that mobile device screens are incrementally getting larger – even if we aren’t waiting around the block for a new device on drop day, we are inundated with advertising that continuously touts larger screens and in turn, bigger dimensions. Let’s review the “square pixelage” for lack of better terminology, for a few law firms, going back several years, for the top 3 resolutions:
Firm 1
January 2019 – January 2020
375 X 667 = 250,125
414 X 896 = 370,944
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 925,773
Change: 17.9%
January 2018– January 2019
375 X 667 = 250,125
360 X 640 = 230,400
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 785,229
Change: 0%
January 2017 – January 2018
360 X 640 = 230,400
375 X 667 = 250,125
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 785,229
Firm 2
January 2019 – January 2020
375 X 667 = 250,125
360 X 640 = 230,400
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 785,229
Change: 18.6%
January 2018– January 2019
320 X 568 = 181,760
360 X 640 = 230,400
375 X 667 = 250,125
Total = 662,285
Change: -0.4%
January 2017 – January 2018
375 X 667 = 250,125
360 X 640 = 230,400
360 X 512 = 184,320
Total = 664,845
Firm 3
January 2019 – January 2020
375 X 667 = 250,125
360 X 640 = 230,400
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 785,229
Change: 0% (but the top 2 switched places as far as % used and the 375 X 667 is a larger device than 360 X 640)
January 2018– January 2019
360 X 640 = 230,400
375 X 667 = 250,125
414 X 736 = 304,704
Total = 785,229
Change: 31.5%
January 2017 – January 2018
360 X 640 = 230,400
360 X 512 = 184,320
320 X 570 = 182,400
Total = 597,120
Conclusion
The bottom line – screen sizes are expanding. The message now isn’t that search is moving to mobile; it has been there for years already. We should be evaluating if our mobile-readiness and responsiveness are accommodating the rise of bigger mobile device resolutions.
Whether your clients are finding you on an iPad Mini or the latest “phablet” (think phones with a 6″ or larger display), your site needs content that’ll get them to read and ultimately choose your firm for their legal or other business needs. Contact our legal marketing experts today for a free marketing consultation and find out how we can help you develop a captivating content strategy that will attract more traffic and leads.