Do you want to make your WordPress site mobile-friendly?
Mobile search has completely dominated desktop search and more than half of searches are done from smartphones.
Apart from this, mobile-friendliness is also a Google ranking factor. That’s why it’s important to have a mobile-friendly site.
This guide will help you make your WordPress site mobile friendly.
What is Mobile-Friendly Website
You might have heard the “responsive” design. It is used as a synonym for mobile-friendly design.
Mobile-friendly websites mean website looks and functions great on any mobile device (smartphone or a tablet).
Screen size changes, content adapted to that size. That means your website text is easily readable, links and navigation are easily clickable.
Why a Mobile-Friendly Website is Important
Today’s era is of mobile and everyone has a smartphone. Most users who visit your site can use a mobile device.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, it can be difficult to view and use in a mobile device. To read content on a non-mobile-friendly site, users need to pinch or zoom.
As a result, users find this a frustrating experience and exit the site.
Furthermore, on April 21, 2015, Google introduced mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change can affect mobile searches and can significantly impact search results.
Here are more reasons to create a mobile-friendly site.
1. Google uses this as a ranking factor
The Google algorithm change in 2015. Having a responsive website boost your website’s search ranking.
Google announced the change on its Webmaster Central Blog,
Starting April 21, we will be expanding our use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results. Consequently, users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.
2. Improve user experience
People don’t like to zoom in and pinch on tiny elements and buttons on the website. Therefore, it is very important to create a mobile-friendly site to provide a better user experience to mobile users.
Mobile-friendly website looks great on any device.
3. Faster loading speed
Speed is also a Google ranking factor. And also, no one likes to wait a long time to load a webpage.
Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices, loads very slowly. While mobile-friendly websites load quickly.
How Do I Know If My Website Is Mobile-Friendly?
Your website looks great on your mobile device. But you should test for a wide range of screen sizes to know if it is truly responsive.
But how?
You can use Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool. Just paste the URL of your website into the field shown below, then click “Test URL.”
In a few seconds Google will tell you if your website is mobile responsive. If it is not, it will give you some reason.
If you get a red sign, it’s time to make your WordPress site mobile responsive.
So, let’s get started…
How to Make Your WordPress Website Mobile Friendly
1. Install a responsive theme
However, currently all modern WordPress themes are responsive. But your WordPress blog is not mobile friendly, it means that you are using an older theme.
To fix this just install a new responsive theme that renders perfectly on mobile devices. There are lots of WordPress themes available in the market and they are fully responsive.
And one thing before buying the theme, see whether it displays well on all screen sizes. For this, you can check the demo of the theme.
If you’re looking at free themes, I recommend GeneratePress, Astra and Hueman. And the Genesis Framework is the best in a premium theme.
3. Use responsive plugins
Plugins help you add extra features to your site. So it is not that you can add anything to your site.
When you add a widget or CTA button and opt-in form to your site, make sure that it scales well on all screen sizes.
Just like the theme, check whether it displays well on all screen sizes.
4. Avoid adding pop-ups on mobile devices
Eliminate pop-ups on your mobile site. Most people do not like pop-ups. Pop-ups disturb the user and create a bad experience for users.
However, most email opt-in forms work just fine on desktop but completely ruin the user experience on mobile devices.
Use other methods to promote what you are showing in the pop-up. But if you want to keep a popup for mobile users then do a lot of testing.
5. Create a responsive menu
Most websites have a menu for navigation. If your site has menu navigation, make sure it looks fit on any mobile screen.
Most modern WordPress themes include responsive menus. Apart from this, you can use a plugin like Responsive Menu.
6. Choose the right font and size
It is very important to choose the right font. Fonts should be clear and easy to read.
Apart from this, you can use capital letters and bold font for your headline. This shows a clear separation between the content and the headline.
Also, make sure fonts aren’t too small. People will not adjust their focus. Just they will exit your blog (no matter how awesome it is). Use a font size that a visitor can easily scan.
I use 18px for my font size and it looks great on any screen size.
If you want to change font size, you can change it by going to style.css of the theme. Otherwise, just add the following code in the CSS section of the WordPress Customizer.
body {
font-size: 18px;
}
7. Use the correct image size
An image explains a thousand words and sticks visitors on your website longer.
But make sure your image is high quality and looks great with your content layout. If the image size is not correct, compress and resize them before uploading.
Best WordPress Plugins to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
You do not want to change the active theme on your site?
You can use a WordPress plugin to make your site mobile friendly. There are lots of plugins available in the market that you can use.
Here are the best WordPress plugins to make your site mobile friendly…
1. WPtouch
WPtouch is a mobile plugin that automatically switches your WordPress website to the mobile version.
It allows you to customize many aspects and delivers a mobile-friendly and stylish version of your site to your mobile visitors, without modifying a single bit of code.
This does not affect the desktop version of your site and will continue to show for your non-mobile visitors.
2. AMP
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, designed to faster loading for mobile pages. It makes your page mobile-friendly and loads faster (web pages load in less than one second).
After installing AMP you can see huge changes to your website:
- Many SEO Experts believe that AMP improves Google Ranking.
- Makes your page mobile-friendly.
- Your site will load faster on slow internet connection.
- In AMP, you can set HTML, javascript, CSS limit but you can not add widget or features.
- AMP supports Google Analytics but it does not support other Analytics platforms.
- You can enable ads in different places for AMP Mobile Page.
Should You Implement AMP? I cannot give you a definitive answer.
many bloggers have given their own ideas about this Google AMP. Many believe Google AMP better and many consider bad. That’s why I can not suggest Google AMP.
3. Jetpack
This plugin comes with many features, including the Mobile-friendly option.
This plugin makes it very easy to make your WordPress site mobile friendly without adding code. Just you need to activate this module after activating Jetpack WordPress plugin. Here is an official guide on Jetpack’s Mobile Theme.
4. WP Mobile Menu
WP Mobile Menu is the best plugin for those who want to focus more on the mobile menu of their website. No coding skills are required and it works with all responsive themes.
This plugin gives full control on mobile menu.
- 3 Depth Menu Level
- Naked Header
- Overlay Mask when the menu is opened
- Logo/Text Branding
- Background image for the menus
- Naked Header
- Hide specific elements when the Mobile Menu is visible(theme menus, or any html element)
- Google Fonts
- Customise the styling of your mobile menus
- Display Type – Slideout Over Content, Slideout Push Content
With the premium version, you can get more control over it.
- [Premium] Disable Mobile Menus in specific pages
- [Premium] Header Live Search
- [Premium] Header Banner(above and below the header)
- [Premium] Footer menus
- [Premium] Menus Display Type – Overlay Full Width, Slideout From Top
- [Premium] Sliding menus
- [Premium] 2000+ Icons (FontAwesome, Fontelicon, Iconic, Entypo, Typicons)
- [Premium] Animated Icons
- [Premium] 5th Depth Menu Levels
- [Premium] Import/Export options
- and much more…
5. Max Mega Menu
Max Mega Menu will automatically convert your existing menu or menus into a mega menu. It is perfect for eCommerce sites or online magazines.
The plugin allows to add any WordPress widget to your menu, restyle your menu using the theme editor and change the menu behaviour using the built-in settings.
The plugin includes a drag and drop menu builder. Its premium version comes with some extra features.
6. Touchy
Touchy is a premium mobile menu and header plugin for WordPress. It also works great on desktop browsers, so if you wish, you can even use it on a desktop site.
Furthermore, Touchy is comes with many customization options. With just a few clicks you can change the color of any element, alter positioning options, hide any of the menu bar buttons, override button functions, change transparencies etc.
Conclusion
In this article, I told you how to convert website to mobile friendly website. If you do not optimize your site for mobile users, you will be left behind in the competition and may lose some traffic.
Your website should be well optimized for mobile users.
There are many WordPress mobile plugins and solutions out there. But this article is enough to make your site mobile-friendly.
If your site doesn’t look mobile friendly on small-screen even after using a responsive theme, WPTouch plugin or JetPack plugin is the best solution for you.
Here are quick tips to create a mobile-friendly site:
- Use a mobile-friendly WordPress theme.
- Create a responsive menu.
- Eliminate pop-ups
- Choose the right font and size
- Use WordPress mobile plugins
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