Mobile Internet Usage Exceeding Desktop, + More in This Week’s SEO News Update

As the year comes to an end, many eye-opening studies are coming out about the impact mobile search will have in 2017. In addition, a new feature for Accelerated Mobile Pages has been rolled out which will make it easier to capture leads.

Full details about each of these headlines are included it this week’s SEO news update.

Mobile Internet Usage Surpasses Desktop

Mobile and tablet internet usage has exceeded desktop for the first time ever. In October 2016, mobile and tablet devices accounted for 51.3% of internet usage compared to 48.7% by desktop.

This marks the first time worldwide mobile internet usage has eclipsed desktop.

Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, echoes what SEOs and marketers have been saying for years now — mobile needs to be a priority for more businesses:

“This should be a wake up call especially for small businesses, sole traders and professionals to make sure that their websites are mobile friendly. Many older websites are not.”

Looking at various parts of the world on their own, statistics show markets such as US and UK still use desktop computers as their primary mode of using the internet. Then there are markets like India, for example, where mobile devices account for 75% of all internet usage.

75% of Internet Use Will Be Mobile in 2017

A report published by Reuters states that 75% of Internet use in 2017 will be from mobile devices. That’s up slightly from mobile web usage this year, according to data from media buying agency Zenith.

Looking ahead even further to 2018, Zenith predicts 60% of all advertising dollars on the web will come from mobile ads. By that time, mobile ad expenditure is expected to reach $134 billion, which is more than will be spent on any other form of advertising altogether.

On the topic of mobile web usage being on the rise, Google recently released a study revealing almost 50% of people search only on smartphones.

Also according to Google’s study, a growing number of people are using only smartphones to access the internet, and those who use mobile devices use them many times longer than people who use desktop computers.

Embed Forms in AMP Pages

The Accelerated Mobile Pages project announced this week it has launched support for forms in AMP HTML. Types of forms can range anywhere from a simple e-mail capture form, to interactive polls, to more complex forms such as selecting colors on an e-commerce product page.

The amp-form extension supports both regular navigation and XHR form submissions, and is said to be an improvement on the overall experience of filling in forms.

Wrap Up

By all counts, the majority of web usage will be mobile in 2017, so be ready! If you’re already well ahead of the game then you can start embedding forms into your accelerated mobile pages

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Pam Aungst

President & Chief Web Traffic Controller at Pam Ann Marketing

Pam Ann Aungst, M.B.A., President of Pam Ann Marketing, LLC, is widely recognized as an expert in search engine optimization (SEO). A self-proclaimed “geek”, Pam began studying computer programming at 6 years old, started creating websites in 1997 and has been working professionally in the field of e-commerce since 2005. Referred to by Sprout Social as a “Twitter Success Story,” she harnessed the power of social media to launch her own agency in 2011. Pam has been interviewed by publications such as Internet Retailer magazine, regularly publishes articles in top internet marketing news sources, and speaks on topics such as SEO and social media. Click here to read her full bio.

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