How to Create a Mobile Friendly WordPress Website

iPhones, Androids and a host of other smartphones are here to stay. It will be misleading to say this, as they are here to change the way people communicate and use the Internet. According to the industry forecasts, by the year 2013 there are going to be 1.7 billion mobile users. If even one third of these people start visiting your website through their mobile, you can only imagine the kind of exposure you will be getting. If you are running a WordPress powered website, it is important that you convert it into a mobile friendly site at the earliest. Any WordPress developer will tell you that making a website mobile friendly isn’t really difficult.

A few plug-ins, a smart navigation plan, clear and concise content and a fluid and good web design is all that is required for getting that perfectly compatible and responsive website. When you plan to make your website mobile compatible, it is important you understand the nuances of the medium. Mobile devices come in various forms, sizes and with many operating systems. The advantage of using WordPress for a mobile website is that you get the flexibility, the robustness that is inherent in the CMS and get the opportunity to install several plug-ins to enhance the functionality of the website. There are several plug-ins that will help in making your WordPress site mobile friendly. Let us take a look at some of them:

WPTouch: Any WordPress programmer will vouch for this great plug-in that has literally swept the industry. It has been downloaded at least 1 million times on the last count! The plug-in automatically transforms the desktop version of your website into a web application that can be readily viewed on iPhone, iPod, Android or BlackBerry Storm. It has an easy-to-use admin panel and doesn’t require a dev key. The advantage of WPTouch is that you can decide what content to display on the mobile version, how to add custom code that includes CSS and Google AdSense.

Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin: To access the dev key of this plug-in, ask your WordPress programmer to register you with the Wapple website. This is one of the most customizable WordPress plug-ins that has advanced SEO settings with about 8 in-built themes and style sheets. Moreover, The Wapple plug-in integrates mobile advertising.

WordPress Mobile Pack: With a mobile switcher, numerous themes, widgets and an easy to use mobile admin panel, WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit to help in the conversion process. The mobile switcher can automatically make suggestions on the mobile and desktop presentation. For tracking usage on the website, the plug-in has the analytics powered by PercentMobile. The plug-in has been designed such that it adheres to valid XHTML-MP1 markup.

Verve Mobile: Verve Mobile offers great solutions for detecting the standard and advanced mobile devices and displaying a website for the detected website automatically. The other key features of the plug-in includes seamless integration with the Verve network, advanced traffic tracking system, automatic formatting of content, resizing of images, etc.

Before taking the plunge, remember to use a tracking software such as Google Analytics to get an estimate of the user demographics of who is accessing your website from a mobile. Remember that tables are a thing of the past for website designs and is an absolute 'no' for the mobile versions. It is essential that you reduce the number of links and make it more intuitive for better site navigation. Make the website light so that users can view your website even in the slowest of Internet connections. Lastly, your content should be your top priority.