Mobile delivers website traffic boost

Websites can attract a significant traffic dividend if they are also optimised for mobile, according to new research by Nielsen Media.

Websites can attract a significant traffic dividend if they are also optimised for mobile, according to new research by Nielsen Media.

Nielsen examined the traffic flows to 200 websites for its new Critical Mass: The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web report.

It found that, where a website can be easily accessed and read from a mobile, it attracts an extra 13 users for every 100 people who visit via a PC – in a effect, a 13% traffic dividend.

Weather and entertainment sites get the biggest lift from mobile, with traffic rising by an average 20% for sites in those categories.

In terms of pure mobile users, search and email sites – particularly Yahoo! Mail – attract the heaviest traffic, followed by sites in the weather, news and politics, city guides/maps, sports and entertainment categories.

Nielsen has also measured the popularity of mobile web search in 16 countries. At the head of the pack is the US, where 15.6% of all internet subscribers, or 40 million people, access the web from a mobile.

Next in line are Britain, Italy, Russia, Spain and Thailand, each with more than 10% of internet users accessing the mobile web, while Indonesia, New Zealand, India and Taiwan languish at the bottom of the list with less than 2% mobile web penetration. Australia was not included.

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