Smartphones have become such a crucial part of our lives that sometimes it is fair to say that we are glued to them. They are easily transportable, you do not need to find some kind of surface to put them on and they do not take a lot of space.
Such popularity of phones requires some efforts from web designers and developers. Today, it is a necessity to have a mobile version of your site.
In this article, we are going to talk about what benefits mobile versions have and point out 10 awesome WordPress plugins that will help make your website mobile-friendly.
Why Do You Need Responsive Design For Your Website?
Responsive design makes your website render perfectly on any kind of device. It requires more effort than creating one single version of a website, however, it is totally worth it.
Let’s take a closer look at what you will gain if you put a tad bit more work into your website design:
Increased Mobile Traffic
Mobile traffic is an essential part of all Internet traffic. For instance, it amounted to 50% in 2017. If your website has a desktop version only, you are likely to lose all of the beneficial traffic.
Faster Loading of Pages
If you compress your resources, it is natural for pages to load a lot faster. While this compression may be harmful to desktop versions, it is totally fine by mobile ones. Users will definitely like that they do not have to wait longer and they are more likely to spend more time on your website. Hence, improving your website speed is necessary.
Improved SEO
You can see the best and the most developed sites that are optimized for SEO in the top-results, plus, having a mobile version is a sign of a good site, taking into account all the benefits that we have listed here.
Lower Bounce Rate
A user does not need a lot of time to realize if the site is bad or not. If your site is not optimized for mobile devices, users will definitely notice how they need to scroll much more, how hard it is to navigate from the phone, and how slow everything is. So they are likely to quit after viewing one page. Moreover, they might not even wait for the page to load.
Increased Conversions
The Mobile version makes the browsing and checkout process as simple as it can be. This simplicity will fix your cart abandonment rate and conversion rate for sure.
Improved User Experiences
As stated before, a responsive design means faster, easier browsing, and effortless shopping which improves user experience with your brand and will help you to boost your retention rate in the long run.
We have already concluded that responsive design is worth its effort. Now it is the time to find out how to make that effort seamless with these 10 awesome WordPress plugins.
10 Effective WordPress Plugins
#1 JetPack
JetPack has a lot of features: protection, backups, carousel, likes, GIF blocks, and others. Here we are going to focus on the JetPack mobile theme. You will be able to change some settings, as it is visible on the picture above. All the next steps are automated and all you have to do is to sit back and watch how the plugin works instead of you. It supports all the major operating systems and improves the readability of your content effortlessly.
However, you might notice that it misses some features as adding the logo, setting custom menu, and sidebar option.
It is still an amazing plugin if you consider all the other features that it has. You may have a free, premium ($9 per month or $99 annually) or professional ($29 per month or $299 annually) subscription.
Source: shoutmeloud.com
#2 Auto Optimize
Auto Optimize helps your site become faster by minifying and compressing all scripts and styles, adding expires headers, caching them, and moving styles to the page head, and scripts (optionally) to the footer. It also minifies the HTML code itself, thus your page becomes really lightweight. You can optimize images and Google fonts as well.
#3 WP Mobile Edition
WP Mobile Edition analyzes popular mobile devices and optimizes content for every specific phone. The plugin also supports the Disqus commenting system and a mobile XML map with its own generator for sites, which has a positive effect on search engine optimization. You will be able to create a mobile web application with a native app-like look and feel. You can customize default themes by choosing colors and fonts, adding your logo, etc.
By upgrading to a pro version, you can enjoy more themes, connect with Google DFP & AdSense campaigns, etc.
#4 WPTouch
WPTouch allows you to render all of 3 key components of your blog: post, homepage, and comments. You do not need to go through all the configurations, that are sometimes not as easy to understand, which makes the plugin very intuitive and easy to use. If you do want to ensure that you are as close to your desktop version as possible, you still have an opportunity to do so.
Source: themeisle.com
You can add a logo, colors, and fonts that resemble your brand.
However, you will have to buy a pro theme to make it consistent and it still may look very different from what you have in your desktop version. You can notice that if you have more than one site: Android VPN client blog, beauty blog, or traveling one may look the same, the content will be its only difference. Pricing can be seen on their official website.
#5 Superfly
Superfly is designed specifically for responsive menus. It creates space efficient vertical push/sliding/static navigation, icon toolbar, or fullscreen menu. It will be much easier for your users to navigate your site which is a great pro for SEO and user experience. The available option of a vertical menu is especially useful for mobile versions. You will be able to move the menu that you like the best between sites, have a variety of design tools, and a video bg option.
#6 AMP for WP
AMP for WordPress enables you to create fast, smoothly scrolling, and simplified versions of your web pages that look great on mobile devices. It also excludes most of the elements that can cause your site to load slowly (JavaScript, third-party scripts, etc.).
However, there is not such a great variety of configurations and you will most probably have to add more plugins, for example, Yoast SEO.
#7 WordPress Mobile Pack
WordPress Mobile Pack enables your mobile web application to work perfectly on various screen sizes and orientations. You have a great field for adjusting the mobile theme: you can set the number of posts displayed on the main page and how they are displayed (title, title + teaser, title + teaser only for new ones, the rest only as titles).
#8 Touchy
It is yet another solution that enables comfortable navigation on the site for small screens. You can add customizable text labels, positioning, transparency, every element individually, hide unnecessary for mobile versions buttons, etc. It also has a lot of features for drop-down menus that are proven to be perfect for mobile versions.
Source: inkthemes.com
#9 Mobile Smart
Mobile Smart has an already made mobile theme (for tablets and iPads included) and it determines which device a user is using and automatically resizes the images to fit in perfectly. Users can switch to the desktop version whenever they want.
Pro version allows you to build mobile menus, disable specific widgets that are not compatible with the mobile version, and select a different homepage for mobile users.
#10 Asset CleanUp
It is the plugin that boosts the speed of your website specifically. It analyzes every page of your website and informs you about unnecessary assets that are too big and can be prevented from loading. It preloads CSS/JS, Local Fonts and Google Fonts, minifies CSS and JavaScript files, reduces the HTML code of the actual page, etc.
This speed booster allows you to be on top of the search results, satisfy your customers by preventing them from waiting, and boost your conversion rate by that.
Conclusion
Now you know that responsive design increases your mobile traffic, keeps your customers satisfied, lowers bounce rates and increases conversions, and consequently, your revenue. In order to achieve all that, we have listed 10 awesome WordPress plugins to make your website mobile-friendly. They make the creation of mobile versions effortless and can actually replace the whole team of designers and developers. There are plugins that boost your speed, allow you to build mobile-friendly navigation systems, and create mobile versions that will represent your brand and be as similar to a desktop version as ever.
