According to a study by the Pew Research Center, as of early 2017, 77% of Americans owned a smartphone – an increase of 42% from the Center’s first survey of smartphone ownership in 2011.
When Dylan Brooks, SEO consultant, looked at Insurance Technologies Corporation’s April 2017 web analytics for 74 clients, he noticed a startling trend: 61 of the clients saw more website visitors coming from computers than smartphones. With that evidence, many insurance agents may find it prudent to enter the mobile space and Brooks urges agencies that investing in mobile is the smart move to make.
“People will never completely abandon desktop computers or laptops. But, there’s a good chance they’ll be using smartphones to access your agency website more often,” he says.
“In general with any technology that’s not familiar, there will always be a learning curve and the question of ‘why do I need this’ arises,” says Brooks. “The more established agencies are used to referrals and maybe some print advertising; they don’t see the value in technology.”
Despite the pushback from some industry professionals, it is hard to ignore the direction consumer behavior is heading, with mobile becoming more and more prominent each day.
“Mobile technology will continue to evolve in the years to come,” says Brooks. “A generation raised on smartphones will come of age. Mobile devices will be the predominant internet browsers.”
Along with consumer preferences, search engines are changing too with the times. In recent years, Google has doubled down on mobile, and starting in April 2015, it started penalizing websites that are not mobile-friendly. According to Brooks, plans are in the works to change Google search indexes to a mobile-first one within the next year or so.
“These changes are a reflection of a moving target. Mobile web browsing surpassed desktop browsing in 2016, and mobile devices continue to represent the future of search,” he explains.
So how can you make mobile work for you?
Brooks suggests to make sure that your website is mobile-friendly, consider your mobile website’s information architecture, make everything accessible, have a need for speed, and think user-first when building mobile-adaptive websites.
“Mobile matters for insurance. Make sure it gets the attention it deserves,” he says.
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