October 8, 2024

Tyree Minozzi

Quality Driven

5 Ways To Optimize Your Site For Mobile + Free WordPress Plugin

Introduction

If you haven’t considered optimizing your site for mobile, it’s time to start thinking about it. According to Google, more than half of all internet searches are conducted on mobile devices. That’s a lot of eyeballs that could be looking at your site. If your landing page isn’t optimized for viewing on a smartphone or tablet, those users will likely bounce and never return. Fortunately, there are many simple ways to optimize your WordPress website so that it displays beautifully across all devices!

Set a Default Listing Image

The default image is the first thing a visitor sees on your site. It should be a large size, high quality image that shows your product in action. If you’re selling clothing, for example, show someone wearing it–not just an empty room with clothes hanging on a rack.

If you have multiple products with similar listing images (such as all of your shirts), then it may make sense to set up an automated rotation so that each item has an opportunity to appear at the top of search results and get clicked on more often by visitors who are looking for something specific.

Choose a Responsive Theme

The first step to optimizing your site for mobile is choosing a responsive theme. A responsive theme will make it easier for your users to navigate and interact with the content on their phones or tablets, because it’s built with mobile in mind.

You can search for responsive themes on the WordPress Theme Repository, but if you want an easy way to find them all at once, try one of these two plugins:

  • Responsive Theme Switcher – This plugin lets you quickly switch between different mobile-friendly themes without having to install new ones individually; it also includes some basic functionality (like hiding elements) so that you can customize each theme as needed.
  • Mobile Friendly Test – This plugin tests how well any given page loads on mobile devices without actually having them installed–it’ll tell you which elements need removing or redesigning before going live with a new site design!

Enable Mobile Friendly Features

To ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, there are a few things you can do.

  • Make sure your site is responsive. This means that it will look good on any device, whether it’s a desktop computer or a smartphone. If you don’t have this feature enabled already, there are many plugins that can help with this (and I’ll be covering them later).
  • Ensure that navigation is easy to use and findable on all devices – even if someone has limited screen space available! This might mean simplifying things like dropdown menus or making sure links aren’t too close together so users don’t accidentally click on something they weren’t looking for instead of their intended destination link.
  • Optimize images for smaller screens by using smaller file sizes (less than 1000px wide) when possible; otherwise crop them tightly so they only show what matters most without wasting valuable real estate upon loading time (images account for around 50{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c}+ load time!). You should also make sure not to use high-resolution photos unless absolutely necessary since these will take longer–and therefore cost money–to load onto phones over 3G connections which tend not have unlimited data plans available like smartphones do nowadays.”

Make it easy for users to contact you via phone or social media

When you’re optimizing your site for mobile, it’s important to make sure that your contact information is easily accessible and visible. This can be done in a number of ways:

  • Make sure you have phone numbers listed on each page of your site.
  • Have an email address linked from every page.
  • Include social media links on all pages as well (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram).

If these are not options for you but still want visitors who come from mobile devices to be able to get in touch with you quickly and easily then we recommend installing the free WordPress plugin Contact Form 7 which gives users the ability create forms right inside their browser window without having access or knowledge of coding languages like HTML or CSS

Use the Responsive Slider Plugin for Easy Navigation

The Responsive Slider Plugin is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to create responsive slideshows on your website. The plugin works by creating an image gallery, but instead of displaying it in a traditional way (as one big image), it displays each image as its own thumbnail and then transitions between them when you scroll down the page. This makes it easier for users who are browsing on their phones because they can easily navigate through all of your images without having to tap each one individually.

The installation process is very simple: Just install and activate! You will then see a new menu item called “Responsive Slider” under “Add New.” From there, select which posts or pages you’d like included in your slideshow by checking off their respective boxes before hitting “Save Changes.”

For more detailed instructions on how best use this tool effectively, check out our guide here

Optimize your site for mobile, and don’t forget about footer navigation.

  • Use the responsive slider plugin for easy navigation.
  • Make it easy for users to contact you via phone or social media.
  • Enable mobile-friendly features like the ability to add a Google Maps listing, a “call us” button, etc., in your footer navigation bar so that users can get what they need quickly without having to scroll through pages of content on their phones.
  • Choose a theme with built-in responsive design so that your site will look good no matter which device someone uses to access it; this includes adjusting font sizes and image sizes accordingly so that everything looks crisp on any device (and don’t forget about setting up custom headers!).
  • Set a default listing image so that when someone lands on one of your listings from Google Search results or another site where there isn’t an existing photo associated with the listing yet (like AirBnB), then we’ll pull in our default image instead of seeing nothing!

Conclusion

Mobile optimization is not just a good idea, it’s an imperative. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, your users will leave and never come back. And if they do come back, it will be with their fingers crossed that things won’t be as bad this time around.