A large number of people all over the world have started relying on smart phones and tablets for everyday life. It is estimated that by the end of 2014, there will be an rise in the number of people who use their mobile devices for searching the web. This reason is enough to make your WordPress website mobile-ready, isn’t it?
If you fail to recognize the power of the mobile market, you will lose out on opportunities to reach out to a wide range of people.
Luckily, it is not technically challenging for site owners to get their websites optimizes for mobile usage.
Before we proceed to getting your website ready for the mobile web, let’s have a look at why your website needs to be mobile ready.
If you look around, you will find that almost everyone is doing some kind of branding for the mobile devices. Even the kids browse many online things on the mobile devices these days. As most of the people own mobile phones or tablets, there are possibilities that they are reading some blog or accessing a website so why not yours?
You must make use of every possible mobile channel for getting traffic. Keep in mind the fact that a lot of time is spent in accessing social networks on the mobile phones. With daily browsing, people might be coming across a bunch of blogs on different topics and the websites shared by their friends and relatives.
When it comes to technology and marketing, you should always be on your toes. If your website is not optimized for being viewed on a mobile device, the traffic coming to your blog will reduce as you have closed down the mobile technology avenue. Your blog/website should be responsive so that people can see it on different screen sizes of the mobile phones.
If your blog lacks mobile visibility, then you are surely going to lose out on the competition and on the potential subscribers as well.
Have a look at the tips mentioned below for getting your WordPress website at par with the mobile web standards:
Use Mobile Friendly Themes
For making sure that the theme of your website is consistent between the desktop and the mobile devices, a mobile theme is the perfect solution for you. With this option, you will not have to develop a theme yourself or invest money on hiring someone to create a theme for you. As the mobile device usage increases, there is also an increase in the mobile themes.
Bellow mentioned are some mobile theme options you can choose from:
- Twenty Fourteen
- Metro
- Scherzo
- Mayashop
Themes can be used as a parent theme and as a mobile theme as well with some CSS tweaks that make your website function perfectly on the smaller screens.
Use Plugins
One of the strongest attribute of WordPress is the availability of a wide range of plugins that simplify things for the website owner. With the use of suitable plugins, website owners can streamline the website operations. Plugins can also help you to make your website mobile user-friendly. Use of the right WordPress plugins is one of the most efficient high traffic tips for WordPress.
As a website owner, you would prefer to spend your time and effort planning the actual content of your website instead of looking into the technical details for making your website function perfectly. With a simple plugin, your website content will be easy to read without having to zoom in several times or without continuously scrolling from the left to the right corners for reading something.
Here are a couple of plugins that you can check out:
- WordPress Mobile Pack
- WP Mobile Detector
Make Your Website Responsive
You might have visited responsive websites in the past. These types of websites respond in accordance to the resolution of the device it is viewed on. If the website is viewed on a desktop, it is presented in a standard way; however, when it is viewed on a smart phone it is presented in another way. Same thing applies when the website is viewed on a laptop or a tablet.
If your WordPress website theme is responsive, it will be customized automatically. This is pretty cool, right? Making your website responsive is extremely easy if you are using a WordPress platform.
All you need to do is find a responsive WordPress theme that suits the style of your website and apply it to your website. If you search online, you will come across several paid and free responsive themes that you can choose from.
Minimize The Elaborate Graphics
Think about the size of the mobile device screen. Although the mobile device screen seems to be getting bigger; it is certainly smaller as compared to the average desktop. Avoid stuffing your website with fancy graphics. You can use some graphics for enhancing the look of the website; however, by using too many of them there will be an increase in the website load time and this will create a negative effect on the mobile users. This is particularly applicable to the eCommerce websites. Shoppers don’t like to be bombarded with graphics. They are looking for making a purchase quickly so keep it simple and give the best to your customers.
Select The Text Wisely
Along with minimizing the graphics on your website, you will have to minimize the text as well. Mobile visitors have limited space on their screens for checking out what you are selling. There are fewer possibilities that the mobile visitors will zoom in and out or scroll up and down so keep your text precise and focused on what your product is all about.
You don’t have to use all the ‘frills’ used by the other companies for attracting the attention of the customers to their products. Only give the visitors what they need for making a purchase.
Conclusion
Optimizing your WordPress website for mobile devices is not a difficult process. In today’s era, this is an important thing to be done. As an online savvy website owner, you might be well informed about how the mobile world is taking over. With the tips mentioned above, you will be able to secure your place in the competition and you will have a profound reach to your potential customers and blog readers.
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