As we worked through our website redesign, I took a look at our site’s Google Analytics to get a wide ranging understanding of our site’s traffic.

It was a really great exercise to help me get a handle on how we need to be thinking about content moving forward.

One of the biggest takeaways from when I went back to 2011 and did an analysis of the types of devices being used to access our content, was that mobile and tablets are exploding. It shouldn’t have been a surprise I guess.

Here are the numbers:

Between 2011 and 2014, the percentage of people accessing our site by a tablet went from .02% of our traffic to 5.3% of our traffic. Additionally, those accessing our content from a mobile device went from 4.7% to 13.6% of our total traffic.

While I wasn’t a math major in college, even I can figure out that adding those together, our share of traffic coming from mobile and tablets rose from 4.72% in 2011 to 18.9% in 2014.

So what does this mean for us and how will it inform our efforts? Here are three ways it did so already and will continue to do so:

1. It was imperative for us to design the site responsively. Meeting the needs of that fast growing segment of people accessing our content on the go is incredibly important, and by designing the site responsively, the content will look great no matter what kind of device they use.
2. Content needs to be considered from a mobile-first mindset. As we move forward with the creation of our content for the site, we are asking the question “how will the experience be for someone accessing it on a mobile device?” That’s an important shift in our mindset.
3. Sharing this information internally with our client teams, we have been able to help them critically look at their data and analyze the impact mobile is having on them. That allows them to have more informed conversations with the Boards and volunteers about how they create content for their own sites in the future.

While mobile’s impact on associations isn’t new, regularly looking and comparing to see how it’s impacting your group is important in understanding how you can take steps to improve your online presence. It certainly helped us!

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Do you agree? Disagree? Are there things we’re missing?