7 Reasons WordPress is the Best Platform for Mobile Sites
One of the things that slows down mobile sites quicker than anything else is large images. Reducing the size of these images or at least the resolution is key to making a mobile site work effectively.
Today, there are a lot of factors to consider when building your online presence. From social media to learning how to start a website there is a lot of information out there on the basics. However, there are a few things to consider first.
While choosing your domain name and host are one consideration, one of the most important is which platform you are going to build your site on. While Shopify and BigCommerce offer some good platforms for an ecommerce store, by far the most popular and powerful platform is WordPress.
One of the primary reasons for this is that a website needs to be mobile friendly. Not only is this because of the Google AMP project and mobile search results, but it is also because over 60% of customers perform searches on mobile devices, and even complete their purchases there without ever using a computer or even a laptop.
You Can Reduce Image Sizes Automatically
One of the things that slows down mobile sites quicker than anything else is large images. Reducing the size of these images or at least the resolution is key to making a mobile site work effectively. The good news? You can do this through WordPress automatically. This will require tweaking your theme settings or adding a plugin, but that is simple enough, and something even the most basic WordPress user can learn.
Optimize Plugins and Themes
This comes to the fact that you can easily optimize your plugins and themes for mobile. It does require effort, but much less effort than with other platforms. A simple tweak to settings can make things load faster and work for mobile.
There are also hundreds of plugins that have been created for WordPress platform sites. If the plugin you have installed is not mobile compatible, you can easily replace it with one that performs the same function that is compatible. There are tons of forums and websites where you can discover the best mobile friendly plugins and themes.
Add Mobile Plugins
Besides just working with the plugins and themes that you have, you can add mobile plugins that strip away all of the extraneous code needed for a desktop site and make your mobile site lightning fast and responsive. There are several to choose from, including:
- WPTouch
- Touchy
- Superfly
- AMP
Each of these plugins has their own advantages, but they work well to improve your site responsiveness and speed in unique ways.
You Don’t Have to Stop at Responsive
A responsive theme is not enough to make your site mobile friendly. You need to take the steps above and even add a mobile friendly plugin, but WordPress makes that really easy to do. The work is done for you, and the process is automated. Many plugins are free or offered at a lower cost than others, making them both affordable and easy to use.
You can Create a Mobile App
Have you heard of the WP-REST API? What is means to the average person is that you can easily create a mobile app from your website. This is a great way to get new users and readers and keep your website front and center in their minds. Having an app is the ultimate mobile optimization. WordPress makes it easy.
Avoid Common Mobile SEO Mistakes
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There are common and known problems with mobile SEO, which is different than desktop SEO. You can find these issues using the FETCH function from Google, but you can fix them easily with plugins like Yoast SEO, which in the pro version lets you look at your SEO on both desktop and mobile and can advise you on how to fix issues you might be having.
You Can Track Your Progress
Lastly, if your site is going to be mobile friendly, you will need to track how you are doing, and how your site is performing when it comes to mobile. From using analytics plugins like JetPack to paying attention to your Google Analytics, WordPress makes it easy to track your progress. You can even study the provided WordPress analytics to see where traffic is coming from, load times, and bounce rates.
You can also determine what your mobile speed is through mobile speed tests done on WordPress itself, and see where you may be having issues. No matter what method you choose, WordPress is the best platform to do it from.
Conclusion
WordPress is the best platform for developing a solid mobile site and even a mobile app. If you are creating or revising your website, WordPress is the way to make sure your users will have a great experience no matter what device they visit your site on.
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