August 6, 2012 2 comments
Since 2010, mobile searches have seen a 400% increase and it is estimated that by 2013, there will be more mobile Internet users than desktop users. A mobile-friendly site can thus help you connect with your customers and drive conversions. Just because your website can be seen on your mobile phone does not however mean that its mobile ready.
Mobile sites are designed with mobile users in mind and fit well on small screens. They are supposed to offer simple navigation capabilities and take advantage of the natural mobile phone features such as maps, location information and click-to-call. How though can you turn your desktop website to be more mobile-friendly and offer visitors the same experience as your desktop version? It turns out; you don’t have to create an entirely new mobile website. You just need the right tools to work with and you can come up with your very own mobile ready site.
Mobilize Using Plugins
Do you own a WordPress website? You are in for a good surprise because with just a single plug-in, you can automatically enable mobile users on your website to access a mobile version it. There are many plugins on the market to choose from. TheMobilePress plugin, for example, can help render your WordPress-powered website on mobile phones by configuring specific themes for specific browsers or devices. The plug-in makes it possible for developers to create customized mobile themes as well.
Mippin is another plugin that detects mobile devices and redirects visitors to the mobile optimized pages on your website. Mippin even renders your blog better and faster on an iPhone compared to the desktop version. Mippin uses the RSS feeds approach to render raw content on a phone by converting videos, on the fly, to the 3GP format while scaling photos horizontally.
Online Tools
With Google having a designated bot that looks for mobile versions of your site, it seems logic to have a subdomain with your mobile version. This will also allow you to optimize separately your mobile website for SEO and landing pages. One of the easiest tools to transform your website into a suitable mobile version is the Google Mobile Optimizer. The tool allows you to test your site and contains plenty of resources to get your site mobile ready.
MobiReady is a free tool that helps test the mobile usability of your existing site and offers detail free reports on potential problem areas and how your site displays on mobiles. With this information you can use other tools to optimize your site for better mobile visibility. DudaMobile is another free online tool that helps you get a mobile version of your website with one simple click. The mobile version automatically syncs with your regular website and offers dozens of mobile templates that will surely WOW your visitors. Additional features include the ability of site visitors to easily send text about your business info and a click-to-call button that makes it easy for site visitors to contact you.
While we review just a few of the tools that can get your site mobile in a short time, there are many other more tools on the Web that can offer similar or added functionality.
What tools have you used to make your site more mobile friendly? Share your comments below.
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