Do You Go Mobile?
Mobile Websites
I personally am not a big fan of mobile versions of websites or blogs but after seeing some tweets this week I have been re-analyzing my thoughts on it. The hardest part is using the share buttons on them. Many times they don’t exist and you have to switch over to full view.
Image from http://mobilewebsitetutorials.com/
Google to Marketers: Go Mobile or Go Home – Forbes onforb.es/Ionwuu via @sharethis
— Sergio Scardia (@GiosMobile) May 2, 2012
A first-hand look at Google’s decisions for their mobile sites and strategy, Google Webmaster Central Blog: owl.li/aDJqS
— BraveNewCode (@bravenewcode) May 2, 2012
Listen to Google you marketing people! Google to Marketers: Go Mobile or Go Home ow.ly/avYvp #mobile #enterprise
— Yannis Marcou (@yannismarcou) April 25, 2012
Don’t forget cookie laws on mobile sites! E.g. BT are great on their desktop site but have forgotten about their mobile site. #dmacookies
— Graeme Trigg (@graemetrigg) May 2, 2012
Plugins To Make It Happen
I have been going through plugins for this site and none of them seem to be working. I have converted my other WordPress blog and it worked like a charm. Our retail websites went mobile months ago and do look really nice. Many times though when surfing from my mobile phone I get frustrated because it is not as easy to find things that I can with the full website version. It is also harder to share via social networks.
There are many plugins available for WordPress mobile. I choose BAAP Mobile Version for my other WordPrss site and it worked very easy. Just plug-in and go! Analytics have shown 2% of traffic is coming from it thus far. It includes a mobile switcher so viewers can decide when they arrive which version they prefer. Love that! It also features Device adaptation, including the rescaling of images, intelligent splitting of articles and posts into multiple pages, the simplifaction styles, and the removal of non-supported media.Very nice!
I found over a dozen different ones to choose from and you must check if they have been tested with the latest version of WordPress. I believe I had a version prior to the latest version of WordPress but it did not work anymore – that’s why I went hunting around today. Love to know which versions you prefer of a mobile plug-in.
Do you use the mobile version or do you switch over to the full view on your mobile phone?
Updated 5/18/2013 and I have updated to WP Touch and it works wonderful!
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About Lisa
Helping Others to Thrive Online Through Social Media, Blogging and SEO. What good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?
20+ years experience in marketing/advertising with 3 years experience blogging, social media and SEO.
17 Responses to Do You Go Mobile?
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There’s no doubt, Mobile Optimization is now really vital Lisa
However mostly I’m on PC. But mobile is worthy when I’m out. Sometimes I find sites little buggy with it’s mobile version. You know, sometimes it’s hard to leave a comment after reading a post via mobile with word verification. Sharing matters too. So I switch to full site at such situations. I didn’t optimize my blog for mobile ’cause Blogger still doesn’t support scaling of large images in posts. So I found it as a bad user experience and leave it as it is. I’ll check your mobile version too 
WordPress users will find this helpful to optimize their sites to compatible with mobile.
Cheers…
Thanks Mayura, maybe my images were too big for plugins that I tried.
I use WPTouch plugin for my blog. I haven’t any complaints from readers yet. I personally use it as well.
Thanks Brenda, I will try that out and let you know. Appeciate it, don’t think I saw that one in my search. Hope it works with my theme.
Brenda – You got it! It’s the best I’ve seen and have seen others using it too. I like the format. You are such a natural with WordPress themes and plug-ins. You have the experience from switching themes often
. Thanks so much!
Hi Lisa, I don’t know if you know it or not but I am blogging blogging on blogger platform. The blogger platform has inbuilt settings which allows you to adjust you blog display for mobile devices. I have enabled it and it shows up perfectly well. Loads fast and posts are clearly readable. But yes, I haven’t yet tried sharing any post to social sites from my mobile device…not required I think
Yes Aswani, some days I miss blogger where I started. It does have some great features. I find it’s harder to share on social networks without switching back to the full view. Maybe in the future some mobile plug-in will figure that piece out too. Thanks for coming by today.
My site is on available, but I wasn’t thrilled with it either. I like the idea of having someone read my posts via their mobile device because most times people are on their phone anyway. If anyone is looking to switch, I would test it out to make sure that you like the look and feel of how your site and go for it.
I am going to try a few suggestions made and let you know when I have found one. Thanks Sonia.
I went responsive a few months ago. My website’s theme automatically adjusts to the device it is on. I don’t have add another plugin. Loves it.
I am using Respo, which is free if anyone is looking for a mobile ready theme.
Susan Silver recently posted..25 Random Facts About Me; Inspiration from @mqtodd
Thanks Susan, Interesting that the theme has it
Hi Lisa,
I used to use WPTouch for my site, but I recently decided to switch theme to a mobile responsive one.
I get more and more traffic from mobile devices, so I thought why not switch instead of use a plugin?
Jens P. Berget recently posted..Check Your Google Rank Weekly
Interesting way to do it Jens. Are many themes made like that now? I have another site I need to switch the theme because I’m not happy with the logo portion of it.
I see more and more themes going mobile responsive. I’m using the genesis framework, and it seems that every new theme they create are mobile responsive
Jens P. Berget recently posted..Niche Marketing – The Most Important Research
Thanks for info Jens – I just used a new theme for another blog of mine and I saw how they now come mobile responsive thanks to your tip.
Hey LIsa,
I used to work for local small business owners and I really pushed toward making a mobile site version. For a local business it’s a must but I don’t know about blogs for instance that target globally.
though provoking post.
Thank you for the insight!
Akos
You are welcome Akos. Thanks for taking the time to comment today.