Keeping up with technology

Learned some interesting statistics about technology and accessing the web.
Mobile Device Web Browsing is expected to overtake desktop browsing worldwide in 2015 (it already happened in the U.S. this past summer). More people now view web sites with their mobile device than with their desktop or laptop computer.
Mobile internet devices will reach the 400% sales mark over laptop and desktop devices this year. In 2014, consumers bought 3.6 mobile devices for every desktop/laptop device purchased. And 70% of all desktop/laptop purchases were made by businesses and professionals, not home consumers. In the fall of 2015, 44% of new college students will not own a desktop or laptop computer, they will use a tablet for schoolwork instead. That number is expected to pass 50% in the fall of 2016.
During the 2014 Christmas shopping season nearly 90% of all shoppers surveyed used their mobile device while in a store to research a product. Of those, 73% said online reviews influenced their final decision. And 68% searched for a better price at another local store or online.
If you are an SEO person… Google changed its site ranking formula in 2014 to rank web sites with VIDEO five-times higher than web sites without VIDEO. Furthermore, web sites with video saw visitors stay on a web page an average of 4 times longer than a page without video. And emails sent to subscribers saw a 350% higher click-thru rate if that email contained a link to a page that had video. And businesses that added a weekly VLOG (Video BLOG) saw a 700% visitor return rate increase.
Product pages that included a product review or product demonstration video had an 84% higher purchase rate than product pages without a video.
And YouTube, which became the number 2 ranked “search engine” in the world in 2013, increased its numbers over Yahoo (number 3) in 2014. The number one search term on YouTube for 2014? “{product name} review”, i.e. “iPhone 6 review” or “LG smart tv review.” Oh, and 71% of all YouTube traffic was on mobile devices in 2014.
Starting on the Monday before Thanksgiving and ending on the Friday after Christmas, YouTube was the NUMBER 1 search engine in the world with consumers using it to research purchases.
And the YouTube App has the highest install rate on mobile devices with 96%. The second highest is Google Maps at 74%, followed by Facebook at 67%.
Dave Navarro, Jr. is the Director of Digital Media for WIBW Radio in Topeka. You can follow him on twitter @wibwwebguru.