The search volume of mobile users surpassed that of PC users, but there are obvious differences between the two types of users, which is also reflected in search behavior.

1. The difference in the place of use

According to data released by the China Internet Network Information Center, the places where netizens use PCs (computers) to access the Internet are mainly homes, work units, Internet cafes and other places. Mobile phones are small in size and easy to carry. Coupled with the popularization of WiFi and 4G and 5G networks, more and more netizens have begun to use mobile phones as their main tool for surfing the Internet. The most common places where mobile Internet users use mobile phones to access the Internet are mainly at homes, dormitories, classrooms, and transportation.

2. Differences in search scenarios

The data published by the China Internet Network Information Center as early as 2018 shows that the most frequent computer searches are “understanding work and study-related content”, followed by “understanding information of interest”. The most searched mobile phone is “understand information of interest”. Mobile searches mostly occur in fragmented time. Compared with the computer terminal, the information searched by mobile phones has a relatively small relationship with work and study, and has a relatively large relationship with life and entertainment.

3. Differences in search content

Whether users use computers or mobile phones, the demand for news search is the greatest. By 2020 there will be more, not less. The proportion of Internet users searching for music and videos on the computer side is higher than that on the mobile side. This is because after searching for music and videos, you have to listen or watch online. This approach consumes a lot of traffic, which requires high network speed, and is obviously inferior to computers on mobile networks.

The proportion of Internet users searching for novels and other literary works on mobile phones is higher than that on computers. Novels and other literary works are suitable for viewing on mobile phones with small screens in fragmented time, and thus have been favored by mobile Internet users.

4. Differences in search input methods

Compared with 2019, there will be significant changes in the input methods used by netizens when searching on mobile phones in 2020. This is reflected in the substantial increase in the proportion of Internet users searching for voice input. On the computer side, users still mainly search by text input.

5. The difference in search volume

Baidu made a major revision of the “Baidu Index” in the early days. Among them, the biggest improvement is to separate the index of mobile search. It can be seen that, with the rapid development of mobile search today, Baidu is also using its powerful database to prepare for the mobile market.

Through the “Baidu Index”, it is easy to find that the search volume on the PC side and the search volume on the mobile side are still very different, and even the mobile side traffic in many industries has already surpassed the PC side.

6. The difference in search range

Generally speaking, users who use the PC terminal to search are more inclined to professional content, while the mobile terminal search is more inclined to life-oriented non-professional content.

7. The difference in competition

The growth rate of the entire mobile terminal website is very high, which has exceeded the growth rate of the number of PC websites, but there are still 40% of the websites only have PC sites. This means that in today’s PC-end Internet competition has reached fierce competition, there is still a lot of room for mobile-end competition. There are no dedicated mobile websites for websites in many industries.

8. The difference in spread

Due to the rapid development of community software such as WeChat and QQ on mobile phones, mobile users are more willing to share good things in their circle of friends. But the PC end is not so good. When users use the PC terminal, they rarely use the sharing function provided by the website.

After understanding the difference between PC and mobile phones, we can implement targeted SEO differently from PC mobile SEO when optimizing mobile SEO, so as to better meet the needs of mobile search users.