WordPress Mobile Solutions

Quick, Easy & Google Friendly

#Mobilegeddon was officially last week. April 21 to be exact. In case you missed the big news, Google announced that websites that don’t cater to the mobile experience will not fare as well in organic search (SEO). If you’re still scrambling to make your WordPress Website Services mobile friendly, then this post is for you. We’ll talk about a quick solution or stopgap until you can overhaul your website to become truly mobile-responsive.

WPtouch Tops Our WordPress Mobile List

For a WordPress mobile solution, the WPtouch plugin is a favorite. It can make your site mobile-friendly quickly. However, you must have a relatively current version of WordPress software (version 3.8 or higher) running. If you’re not, I’ll talk more about that later.

There are two versions of WPtouch. One is a premium (paid) version while the other is free. You can download Version 3.7.7 in the Plugin Directory on WordPress.org. For most website, the free version should be sufficient. It was last updated on April 27; this is a sign that WPtouch’s developers are responsive (pun intended) to support issues.

Here what the plugin does:

• Enables a simple mobile theme for mobile visitors of your WordPress website.
• Allows you to customize some aspects of the mobile appearance without modifying code
• Gives your visitors the choice between the mobile theme and your website’s regular non-responsive theme.

Implications of Running An Old Version of WordPress

Imagine never changing the oil in your car. Eventually the engine will have issues requiring attention. Same goes with WordPress. Here are the implications of not updating the software and running on an old version:

• Security hacks can occur. WordPress is proactive in plugging security leaks as they emerge. By not updating the software, you don’t take advantage of these improvements and leave your site open to a hack.
• New functionality is added. WordPress makes major upgrades to their software often, rolling out new features that makes managing a website easier, better, faster. The same is true with plugins.
• Old stuff like plugins can stop working. At some point your website will get so old… from a software standpoint… that an easy update isn’t possible. It will need a major overhaul. And that can be time consuming and expensive.

What was your Mobilegeddon experience?