How to Make Your WordPress Website Mobile Friendly

Having a single website that enables you to connect with your audience from their desktops or laptops is no longer valid.

Today you also need a mobile website that allows you to connect with customers from their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Fortunately for websites designed on WordPress, there are simple solutions.

The Fast-Moving Mobile Trend

It seems like it was only a few years ago that people started to use mobile devices. Yet today, mobile technology has become a big and fast growing part of the global marketplace, according to a report by comScore published in February 2013.

The highlights of the report show:

• Over 50% penetration of smartphones in the U.S. market with mobile devices entering the “late majority” stage of the technology adoption curve
• Over 125 million U.S. consumers own a smartphone
• More than 50 million U.S. consumers have a tablet
• 99% increase in the number of smartphone users from 2010
• Nearly 90 percent of the mobile market comprises Google android OS and Apple iOS

The One Stat You Need to Keep Your Eye On

Despite these numbers, which are still growing rapidly, there is another one you should keep your eyes on most. It is the fact that people spend over one-third (37%) of their Internet time on mobile devices. This means that one in three people in your target market at any time is using his mobile device and not a computer. If that’s where your customers are, then you need to be there too.

Make Your Website Mobile Friendly–Fast and Easy

Creating your website may have taken you hours or more of your time and hundreds or thousands of dollars, so it’s understandable why you may think that a mobile website could take as much time and money. Surprisingly, once you have developed your website, creating a mobile website is a very simple solution that takes much less time and money than you think.

Here are a few fast, easy and low-cost solutions.

WPtouch Plugins

Plugins are the fastest and easiest ways for you to make your website mobile friendly. WPtouch, MobilePress and WP Mobile Detector are three popular plugins.

WPtouch is a WordPress plugin. There are two versions–one for Android devices and one for Apple. It is simple to use. After users install the plugin on their smartphones or tablets, it automatically makes your website mobile friendly. You don’t need any coding or special tasks to give your mobile audience what they need to view your website.

WPtouch technology gives you both a responsive design and server-side optimization. The plugin increases the download speed of your WordPress website to mobile devices more than three times faster than to desktops, so your audience can see it quickly. In addition, it is SEO friendly.

MobilePress makes a mobile-friendly version of your WordPress website. It gives you the option to customize your theme. It’s fast and it’s easy.

WP Mobile Detector is a plugin that can differentiate between a smartphone and a standard mobile phone. It automatically loads a compatible WordPress mobile theme for your website for the mobile user to view. You can also design your own theme. Plus, you can provide your users with collapsible menus, dynamic page loading, cross-platform compatibility, touch-optimized layouts, widgets, and more. All your users have to do is to install and activate the plugin.

Responsive Design Themes

You can also make your website mobile friendly by using a WordPress responsive design theme. A responsive design allows you to take the content of your website and automatically adjust it to the display screen your audience is viewing it. Responsive design themes can also optimize your website for most mobile devices, so you do not need to set up different sites.

Style Sheets

A third option to make your website mobile friendly is to use different style sheets. CSS style sheets allow you to customize the content of your website based on settings you designate. Working with style sheets is a bit more difficult than plugins or responsive design themes, so you may need help from your website designer. However, if you have the time and want to do it yourself, then you can use the Custom CSS Manager from WordPress.

Is That All?

Designing your mobile website can be easy, but before you publish it you should test it. Look at it on an Android device, Apple device and a Windows phone. Look at how fast it loads onto your device. Observe how well the menus look and work. Look at the graphics and play the videos, if you have any. Most of all, check to see that your content communicates well to viewers. Once you approve all of these things, then you are ready to publish your mobile-friendly website.