What if you spent a lot of money in the past on the perfect theme for your site? What if that site wasn’t optimized before for mobile devices? Don’t worry, WordPress has plugins that fit perfectly.
Although the newer versions of WordPress are mobile-friendly by default, sometimes a plugin will offer a better experience for what you’re trying to accomplish.
Graphics, layout and even actual programming of WordPress mobile plugins can alter how your site appears to those using smartphones and tablets. It can also affect your search ranking as Google penalizes those that are not mobile ready.
Here are six of the coolest plugins that can help you show off the site’s mobile readiness in search engines.
1. WP Mobile Menu
Mobile Menu is a great plugin for those who want navigation streamlined for smartphones and tablets. The free version offers elements like empty headers, logo branding, Google fonts and hiding specific HTML elements in the event a mobile device is detected.
And although this plugin works well for keeping menus easy to use, the premium version offers even more options including more than 2,000 icons from FontAwesome as well as a copyright section.
2. WP Mobile Edition
WP Mobile Edition detects if a user is mobile or not while displaying a separate theme. If you don’t have a responsive theme ready, it comes with a general one.
What makes this an ideal system is that it has a lot of customization options available. You can set colors, select specific menu items, modify front page settings and even add your social links.
As an added bonus, you can create custom contact pages specifically for your mobile users.
3. Mobile Smart
Mobile Smart offers an automated way to switch your site’s theme when something like a smartphone is detected. You can also set it to switch themes manually by adding a user widget, footer tool or using a template tag.
And for those who use mobile domains, such as those starting with “m” for the site, Mobile Smart Pro will switch those domains when someone visits. You can also disable certain widgets and plugins from running on mobile devices…which improves user experience in some instances.
4. Mobile Call Now & Map Buttons
There’s no denying it; customers are going to find your site from their smartphones. As more people search from hand-held devices, adding something like Mobile Call Now & Map Buttons only works to boost interaction with the locals.
Local SEO is as vital to a business as any other form, and giving visitors a method to contact you directly from the website is greatly beneficial. All it takes is a quick install of this plugin and a few customization changes.
5. WPTouch
The WPTouch plugin is one of the few that Google recommends for WordPress sites. As a lack of responsiveness can hurt your SEO scores, you want to make sure you’re adhering to optimization techniques.
WPTouch adds a simple theme automatically to your site while giving a few customization options. This will let you keep your standard desktop theme while showing a mobile-friendly version to smartphones and tablets.
The “Pro” version of the plugin delivers extensions and greater control over how people view the website.
6. WordPress Mobile Pack
When you want to deliver an “app-like” appearance to your site, WordPress Mobile Pack may be something to consider. This plugin gives you six abstract covers to give the website an interactive atmosphere. There are customization options available to change colors, fonts and even images used specifically on your site to give it more of a unique appearance.
One of the elements that make this plugin ideal is the ability to connect to Google Analytics specifically.
Installing Mobile-Friendly Plugins
To install a mobile-friendly plugin, click on “Plugins” from the WordPress dashboard. Click the “Add New” button at the top of the next page. In the search bar on the right, type in “mobile friendly” and hit enter.
You can also type one of the above examples in this field. This will pull up a list of available plugins you can use. However, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on the “Last Updated” field of the plugin description.
Some may be out of date and may no longer be necessary. This is because of the advancements implemented in newer versions of WordPress.
Help Your SEO by Being Mobile Friendly
Are you aware that Google search results from smartphones and tablets will display “mobile-friendly” on page links? This is a measurement Google implemented to help those on smart-devices find content that is easy to read.
Luckily, there are plenty of WordPress mobile plugins that can help your site attract more visitors from those devices. Find the best plugins for you and improve visitor retention as well as SEO. It may be a vital part to achieving success.
What plugins do you have which help your site on mobile devices? How often do you optimize images for your mobile-friendly posts?