Mobile Website Visits By Last-Touch Channel, 2013-2015 [CHART]

Over the past couple of years, search has overtaken direct as the leading referrer of mobile phone traffic in North America, according to a recent report from Adobe Digital Index (ADI). The same pattern has manifested in Europe, according to ADI’s analysis of more than 1.3 trillion visits to more than 10,000 websites in North America and Europe since 2013.

During the first half of this year, search accounted for 42.9% share of visits for phones as measured on a last-touch basis, up from 24.4% share in 2013. Back then, direct traffic (51.2%) represented more than double the share of search-referred visits, but direct traffic has since diminished to 30.9% of total visits in H1. The shift appears to have largely occurred last year, and ADI attributes the replacement of direct with search traffic to consumers looking for “the easiest way to access content and because mobile browsers encourage search.” Read the rest at MarketingCharts.