In 2016 internet access through mobile devices exceeded desktop for the first time worldwide. This continued to be the case in 2017 as well! Mobile compatibility is increasingly important not just because of growing traffic, but also because Google favors mobile friendly websites for its mobile search results. On average, Statcounter.com indicates that 43.26% of internet traffic was viewed using desktops (Figure 2), a relatively small drop from 2016 where the average was 44.79%. The percentage of internet traffic that originated from mobile devices reached 52.48%, showing a 2.17% increase from 2016 (50.31%).

Data analysis of Argo-E’s own data from a large number of websites in the Civil, Environmental and Construction (CEE) Industry that the company maintains, indicates that the traffic from mobile platforms on CEE websites, although lagging compared to global data, is experiencing a steady increase (FIgure 1). On average, 24.72% of the CEE traffic appears to be originating from mobile platforms, compared to 18.20% last year, a significant increase of 6.52%! Traffic from tablets has remained roughly the same at 2.67%. Although still a significant percentage of CEE internet traffic is using desktops (at 72.61%, for this year ) there is a decreasing trend from 2016 (at 78.68%).

It is more important than ever for CEE Companies to make sure that their websites is optimized for mobile viewing. Not only so that they maintain a professional online presence, but also because they will be missing out on an important part of online traffic.

Figure 1: % of CEE Website Traffic for mobile and tables

Figure 2: Usage of mobile devices in 2017