Due to the increasing adoption of smartphones, mobile web development has overtaken desktops and laptops. A study reveals that more than 1/3rd of internet access is via smartphones, shrinking the desktop browsing to 48.7%.
This should be a wake-up call for businesses, professionals and web developers to make sure that their website is mobile friendly. The worst part is Google penalizes the websites that are not mobile responsive. Hence, it has become essential to make websites mobile friendly.
When it comes to making your website look great on desktop and mobile, WordPress is ahead of the curve. There is no doubt that WordPress one of the best platforms for designing any website. However, if your WordPress site is not properly optimized for mobile devices, you may not get the desired traffic. Here are some tips to make your WordPress site mobile friendly.
Before you get started with the below tips, I advise you to take a mobile-friendly test to check if there is anything wrong with your site’s mobile optimization.
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Switch to a mobile responsive theme
Check the current version and theme of your WordPress site. If your website has been around for a while, it’s time to update the theme. A majority of WordPress themes available in theme directory are responsive and it’s rare for a theme not to be mobile friendly. You can opt for a free or paid theme depending on your budget.
Sentio, Cactus, Astore, etc are just some of the free themes you can switch to. If you prefer choosing a paid theme, I recommend - UDesign, Onetone, Brilliance, Dazzling, Centum etc.
If your website is loading at a slow rate on mobile devices, the first thing you need to look at is the images. Get rid of unnecessary images and optimize any large images on the landing pages. There are plenty of online tools and WordPress plugins that help you compress the image without losing its quality.
The latest version of Wordpress is taking care of the images on its own. However, if your website is running Wordpress 4.3 or below - you must upgrade it to see the significant gain in speed.
Page Speed is an important factor that affects the ranking of your website. Google always wants to give users the best experience, no matter they browse from desktop or mobile. To help web developers in this regard, Google has come up with a solution called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that aims to load web pages faster on small screen devices. Use the right plugins to implement AMP on your WordPress site.
There are a handful of WordPress plugins that help you create a mobile-friendly version of your website. Some of the best WordPress mobile plugins include - WP Touch, JetPack, MobilePress, Wapple Architect, WP Mobile Detector etc. Using these highly functional plugins becomes a straightforward and cost-effective solution for mobilizing websites on a limited budget.
The above quick tips will help you make your WordPress website more mobile friendly. However, your website optimization efforts shouldn't stop here. It is essential to monitor the performance of your site regularly to know the user experience and make the necessary changes to your site for better performance.
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