The growth of the mobile device market is incredible! The number of smartphone users in the US is over 80 million and still growing! In fact some projections estimate that by 2015 mobile usage will actually overtake desktop usage. Visitors to your website are already using mobile devices and that number will only grow in the coming years. Does your site offer a mobile friendly version for these users? If you are one of the 65 million people who have chosen WordPress for your website, then you have many options for optimizing your site for mobile users.
One of the options available is to move your site to one of the dedicated WordPress Themes that are optimized specifically for mobile devices. Here is a link to an article by TripWire Magazine which lists several of the best WordPress Mobile Themes.
If you would prefer to stay with your current theme that’s ok! You can still easily make mobile work for your business. Here are a few of the best WordPress plugins available for mobilizing your website.
Top 3 Free Plugins –
WordPress Mobile Pack - The WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site. It has a mobile switcher, themes, widgets, and mobile admin pane which offer many options. It can be somewhat overwhelming but offers the end users the option to choose between mobile or desktop views.
WP Mobile Detector – WP Mobile Detector automatically detects standard and advanced mobile devices and displays a compatible wordpress mobile theme. It is a simple way to adapt your site that includes 9 themes, widgets, and the ability to create multilingual sites. It also can keep records of access statistics to help you identify your website traffic.
WordPress Mobile Edition – WordPress Mobile Edition is a plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device. Mobile browsers are automatically detected and the list of browsers can be customized on the settings page. Installation is simple.
If your site is a high volume site (1 million+ page-views per day), here is a great option:
WordPress Mobile by Mobify - This plugin detects mobile devices and sends them to the appropriate mobile URL. You must register for a free Mobify account at http://mobify.me in order to create and manage your mobile site.
So, how do you figure out the best option for you and your site? These are the questions to ask when reviewing the available Plugins:
1. How User Friendlyis the End Result? Look at the screen shots or temporarily install the plugin and walk through the end user’s process to see if the steps are easy and understandable.
2. Is it easy to get started? How time consuming and code oriented is the setup? The three main plugins listed above are all quick and easy installs.
3. Does it provide the user an option to switch to normal or desktop view?
4. What mobile operating systems does it work with? What about iPads, Kindle Fires and other tablets?
5. And of course, does it work with what you are already using?
Need some help making your site attractive to millions of smart phone users? Leave your comments or question below!
