Local site hits over 50% mobile traffic

Published: October 03 2013

According to digital news site Mashable, 17.4% of all global internet traffic comes from mobile devices - and it’s a figure on the rise. In 2012, the figure stood at 11.1%. In addition, Cisco estimates that “mobile data traffic will increase 13-fold between 2012 and 2017.” This trend is due to the rise in smartphones and other internet enabled mobile devices, and it has already influenced the way websites are developed with Responsive Web Design (RWD) now being an essential part of any respectable web development company’s repertoire.

The statistics that indicate the global shift towards a mobile internet experience are made up of individual cases, and a Kelowna company is the perfect example of the global shift in the microcosm. 19 Greens Kelowna, a golf course in West Kelowna, B.C., recently saw 57.8% of its total web traffic for an entire month come from mobile devices. Nikki Csek, the Principal of Kelowna website design agency, Csek Creative, the agency responsible for the 19 Greens site, says it’s “unheard of, though perhaps not unexpected.”

“I monitor the analytics for all of our clients,” said Csek. “I find it fascinating. Around a month ago, I noticed that the mobile traffic for 19 Greens had exceeded 50% of their overall traffic. I believe it was 57.8% in total. That’s really interesting stuff. It truly demonstrates how important mobile has become to the web industry.”

And while, according to Csek, 19 Greens are “the very first company” on the Csek Creative books to see this kind of consistent high-percentage mobile traffic, it is “set to continue and more and more businesses and organizations are going to see more mobile visitors to their sites.” Csek says that businesses must start planning for this inevitably by developing RWD websites.  

Ryan Lahay, Lead Developer for Csek Creative, agreed saying, “Desktop experiences are just beginning to be eclipsed by mobile experiences. A lot of first impressions that potential customers make with companies are now on their smart phones, and it surprises me that mobile presence is one of the last things that a business is usually concerned with. I have believed for quite some time now that we should be looking at designing and developing for "mobile" devices first, and desktop experiences second. It forces us to focus on what is really important to the end customer.”

Businesses or organizations looking to learn more about mobile web traffic and Responsive Web Design can contact find out more about common mobile web strategies.