Its adoption has been so great that projections since 2016 indicated that it could become the most important search source by 2025.
But… It was only a matter of time before the projection fell apart.
Neither Nostradamus nor The Simpsons could have foreseen the sharp drop in why do vietnamese use zalo? mobile traffic (nor a pandemic that would force us all to stay at home for several months), but that is exactly what the State of Mobile 2022 report shows .
Could an apocalyptic future be upon us and we as marketers might have to throw all our mobile efforts out the window?
Let's take things easy.
Over the past two years of the pandemic, we have adapted to the "new normal." That normal was nothing more than getting used to seeing consumption and communication dynamics change more frequently .
Our mobile traffic predictions were based on trends that did not take into account how radical a pandemic like the one we are experiencing in 2020, 2021 and the years to come would be.
At first, we did not want to accept or understand that the pandemic was going to last so long. Nor did it occur to us that, when it was over, our routines and worldview would change to the point where it would be impossible to return to the way we thought in March 2020, when the pandemic was formally declared.
At that time, mobile traffic occupied a large part of our strategic communication efforts and I am sure it remains part of our analysis and investment routines.
So why is there so much fear about the decline in mobile traffic? Below, I'll tell you what Semrush found in its study and what it means for Digital Marketing.
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What the 2022 Semrush Study Says About Mobile Traffic
The world was already talking about the importance of taking care of mobile audiences. Since 2016, this has been the priority, thanks to studies that indicated that smartphones would be the main source of information searches and hence the high investment in their growth.
However, the arrival of the pandemic left us with a certain behavioral disorder, which still affects us after two years.
What does the pandemic have to do with traffic? 2020 was the year we saw the first drop in mobile traffic. Restrictions on leaving home, at first, seemed to be connected to the increase in computer use for organic searches.
We have reached mid-2022 with more flexible traffic restrictions and with the hope that mobile traffic will resurge. However, that was not the case. Now, in the middle of 2022, mobile traffic continues to fall, thus destroying the equation in which being at home was closely associated with computer use.
The Semrush study also showed that the mobile phenomenon was affected by budget cuts in companies, paid media and strict social media policies.
And let's continue to discover what has happened with mobile traffic, according to the study.
Mobile traffic vs pandemic
Something we must keep in mind is that the drop in mobile traffic is NOT synonymous with the fact that we have stopped using our smartphone.
Just think for a second: when was the last time you remember going to the bathroom without your cell phone?
Yes, it is true that the pandemic has led us to make frequent use of the computer. Honestly, working, studying or searching for information is still more comfortable on the computer. But this is not the main reason for the drop in mobile traffic.
Faced with the new consumer dynamics, companies began investing in more technologies to help them survive the uncertain economic future. Market research showed that users were not only using smartphones more, but were also becoming more attached to the device .
Why, then, is mobile traffic in such decline?
Mexico's Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) has shown in a survey the increase in mobile Internet use for video calls, online shopping, banking transactions and more.
The need to manage life activities through smartphones increased by 200% , just for more targeted app use.
Here's the crux of the matter.
Before 2020, apps were going through a tough time, but after the pandemic started, there was a considerable recovery where app downloads increased by 27% and have remained that way to this day.
Mobile phone use has been divided: 49% of the time for using communication applications such as social networks, 36% for checking email, the rest for using financial applications, health, education, news, home delivery, games, streaming, among others.
What do I mean by these statistics?
Smartphones are being used more than ever. But the trend in usage has moved away from organic mobile search to make room for the app business, where strict algorithm policies encourage content creation and exclusive sharing within the app. As is the case with social media, with its strategies to prevent brands from driving users away from their platforms.
Mobile usage is heading in another direction
Concern about the growth of mobile devices remains as strong as it has been since Google's announcement in 2016.
What the Semrush study indicates is that the user experience is shifting towards other alternatives, resulting in an invitation to Marketing teams to think about content and communication in a different way than originally projected.
Similarly, Semrush shows us that the battle for mobile traffic is not lost.
For most countries, organic search traffic is second or third in importance.
It is therefore essential to continue investing in the strategy. At the same time, we need to develop communications that strengthen other traffic acquisition channels, such as Direct and Referral.
As an SEO specialist, these statistics are not what make me the happiest, since my goals depend on this third organic channel. At the same time, the study helped me think about the difficulties we are experiencing in SEO, faced with so many new and powerful traffic acquisition channels.
This scenario ended up being the main motivator to continue delving into algorithms, linguistic entities, and the local behavior of people and the market.
The Semrush graph also makes clear the importance of working more on brand recognition (direct traffic) and strategic alliances with targeted commercial proposals (referred traffic).
The invitation, therefore, is that as SEOs and marketers we learn to take care of the other acquisition channels.
Information sources have diversified and the smartphone remains the pillar of these changes.
How we are adapting at Rock Content
We have been experiencing a critical moment for traffic in general. And not just us. Other companies too.
For years, at Rock Content we have wisely invested in our organic traffic. So it is not for nothing that we have the ability to impact 7 million people every month, with our blogs in English (USA), Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Mexico and Latin America).
But we can't lie, we also got used to the unpredictable dynamics of 2020 where our traffic grew by 200%, after 8 years of blogging. Now, in 2022, we are suffering because the numbers are behaving more like 2019 instead of continuing with the frenetic pace that the pandemic brought to traffic as a whole.
On the other hand, looking at our traffic acquisition channels, we found that mobile engagement itself did not change as drastically as Semrush suggested in the study.
2022
2021
As we can see, we saw huge growth in traffic to our English (US) blog, but in terms of percentage share by device, mobile remained largely unchanged.
We noticed similar behavior on our Portuguese and Spanish blogs.
So, in reality, even though the study identified a significant decrease in mobile traffic, in our scenario, the study served as a reason to continue working on the media proposals in which we were already investing efforts since 2021: our media plan and our intention to diversify traffic sources.
Of course, we will continue to work on our 20% quarterly organic growth in the United States for our English blog. But we are also creating strategies to boost direct searches for our brand, content and services.
As part of the strategy, we created a very strong opinion content section with the main Marketing, Business and Sales trends of the week—and that type of content, which is not made for SEO strategies, is growing 100% in traffic to the United States, 188% in Brazil and 198% in Mexico and bringing more than 30k visits each month. And we will not stop here.
We also created our fully interactive newsletter: The Beat, which is growing in registered users by 15% per month. And in number of accesses, there is a growth of 50% in the United States and 164% in Brazil. Mexico, here we come!
And yes, the numbers still seem low compared to the 7 million organic visits, but these numbers are growing and connecting with people in the way that today's information consumption demands.
So congratulations to the content team at Rock Content ! We certainly won’t be taking long to continue exploring ways to participate in mobile trends.
What to do to comply with current mobile standards?
Being digital is a daily job and by this I mean that we need to be connected with the reality of our users to understand if market predictions match those of our specific niches.
Listening to trends is very important to get ideas and stay connected with the world. But listening to the audience and following their daily problems is what will lead us to make the right decisions so we don't have to chase traffic that isn't impacting our results.
Semrush calls us to think about mobile dynamics. But how much does mobile technology really affect your digital strategy?
It's true that mobile and general traffic took a beating, but it still represents a good percentage of visits to your website or blog. User behavior should no longer be measured based on the pandemic, but rather on the needs and realities of the niche we are targeting.
The changes we witnessed during 2020 and 2021 were the new normal for two years. Now, let’s wait closely to see what’s next in the world of communications and digital consumption.
Having good data, closely following your competition and good references in the sector, through benchmarks, will always give us better perspectives on current results, rather than simply following trend waves for no reason. Even more so at a time like the pandemic, which has only brought strong questions that are making us rethink what we want from society.
Continue reading the contents of our newsletter section (if you haven't subscribed yet, I strongly recommend you do so below), and train your thinking on various topics, in accordance with the opinions of our team of Marketing professionals.