No wonder, in 2021, people prefer mobile devices to access the internet as it allows them to surf on the go. Most people have been glued to their smartphone screens all the time, checking for updates, surfing for information, shopping online, and whatnot?
So, optimizing WordPress website for mobile phones goes without saying. In the cut-throat competition of internet marketing, business owners need to pace up with technology and marketing trends to stand out and get noticed.
Just owning a website is not enough these days. You have to constantly put your efforts into building your online presence, boosting your SEO efforts, driving traffic, and more. With almost all of your customers being mobile users, they need to access your web content seamlessly on their mobile phones.
If your website is not optimized for mobile devices, users can’t read your content or view your images precisely. Hence, you need to optimize your website for the screen size of mobile devices. Thus, they can have a positive shopping experience on your site.
However, it is not very challenging, and it is a doable task to optimize your website for mobile phones. Here are a few practical ways to optimize your WordPress site for mobile phones.
5 Optimization Tips to Make a WordPress Site For Mobile
1. Use Responsive WordPress Themes:
The first and foremost step in creating a mobile-friendly website is to utilize a responsive theme. Of course, your website looks great on the desktop. But, you need to have a responsive theme that adapts the content to multiple screen sizes. Else, your business will fail to reach the extensive market of mobile users.
When you have a responsive mobile-optimized theme, it eliminates the need for a custom mobile site simultaneously with your traditional desktop site. The responsive theme itself manages and fits the content appropriately regardless of the screen size.
The modern WordPress themes available in the theme directory on the official WordPress website are mobile-optimized WordPress themes that support responsive design.
If you want to use the best mobile-optimized WordPress themes, it is better to go for paid themes. Here are some best WordPress themes for mobile optimization.
- Elegant Themes
- GeneratePress
- Themify Themes
- MyThemeShop
- Astra Theme
Do you know whether your website is responsive for sure? You can check the mobile responsiveness of your website by leveraging many free responsive website design testing tools.
2. Facilitate Google Accelerated Mobile Pages in WordPress:
PageSpeed of webpages has become a crucial ranking factor as per Google’s current search algorithm. Moreover, Google prioritizes the seamless user experience on both desktops and mobile users.
Accelerated Mobile Pages(AMP) are exactly for that purpose. It aims to load web pages faster on mobile devices and make a mobile-friendly website. With PageSpeed being a crucial ranking factor, undoubtedly, AMP helps your website gain rank higher on SERP.
You can set up AMP on your WordPress website with the help of WordPress plugins and optimize your WordPress website for mobile users. Plus, you can also optimize the WordPress website for mobile users by Defer Parsing of JavaScript.
3. Use Plugins:
WordPress is an ideal website builder for its availability of plugins. Yes, plugins come in handy, enabling the website owner to streamline the job. Also, they play a significant role in turning a site mobile-friendly.
Rather than spending hours focusing on the content on your website, using plugins to handle your website content is effortless. There are many plugins available that make your content readable. Thus, users need not zoom or scroll to read a paragraph on mobile.
Here are a few of the plugins that you will have to check out:
- WordPress Mobile Pack: It is one of the most effective plugins that give you control over the mobile version of your website. Domain mapping makes it ideal for identifying the most popular devices, with a single theme offered in four various color palettes.
- WP Mobile Detector: It is yet another plugin that allows you to optimize your website for mobile devices effortlessly. WP mobile detector works with an extensive range of smartphones, tablets, web-enabled phones, and more. Thus, it takes the burden of giving a pleasant web experience to your users without you having to spend hours trying to figure it out.
4. Use Optimized Images & Avoid Elaborate Graphics:
Not to mention the difference in the screen sizes of mobile devices and desktops; optimizing images for mobile devices goes without saying. Using fancy graphics and heavy images will only increase the load times, which is a big no for mobile surfers.
It is specifically valid for eCommerce websites. None of the users will want to get bombarded with graphics that make it complex to navigate through the site. Everyone, of course, prefers a smooth and quick purchase.
So, keep the graphics and images as simple as possible. With optimized images, your website will load fast without frustrating the users.
As per Google, most bounce rates from websites are due to slow page loading speed. Every second matters when it comes to page loading. A few seconds delay can make the users leave your website, and probably they will never come back.
Thus, image optimization is crucial to increase the page loading speed.
5. Avoid Using Full Screen Pop-Ups:
Another important step in making a mobile-friendly website is avoiding full-screen pop-ups. No wonder desktop users will find it engaging with the full-screen pop-ups that have a call to action for your website.
However, these pop-ups can annoy mobile users. Yes, they are not ideal for mobile browsers and can frustrate them. If at all you need to use pop-ups for your content on a desktop, try adding CSS or JavaScript code. That way, you can identify the user’s browser type and avoid showing these pop-ups to mobile surfers.
So, yes, hiding these pop-ups on mobile devices will improve the user experience of mobile visitors. Go for mobile-friendly WordPress plugins for pop-ups and other email options or CTAs.
Final Thoughts:
Of course, optimizing your website for mobile phones is inevitable in this world of smartphones. However, it doesn’t need to be complicated though. Leverage these simple yet practical tips to optimize your WordPress website for mobile phones.
However, if you feel overwhelmed to keep up with the online marketing trends or find it daunting to optimize your WordPress website for mobile phones, you can always outsource it to a third party.
Cypherox Technologies is a reputed IT company that serves a wide range of IT services, including website development, mobile app development, digital marketing, SEO services, and more. Contact us to take your project further. Our team of experts will be happy to assist you.
