With millions of people now browsing the web on their mobile phones, web pages are being squashed and contorted into ever smaller screens. If you’d like to capture your share of mobile site visitors, it’s a good idea to make sure your blog looks and functions well on today’s most popular mobile devices like the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.
Fortunately, if you’re using WordPress, you’ll find all the hard work has been done for you in creating plugins and tools that can help “mobilize” your blog. Here are some of the top rated choices that are easy to install and customize:
WPTouch
This unique mobile WordPress tool is a combination plugin and theme that turns your existing blog into an interactive web application that’s even touchscreen compatible. No programming experience necessary.
Just activate it from your WordPress Dashboard, and WPTouch will appear as the default theme to your mobile phone users, while your regular theme shows for everyone else. WPTouch works for self-hosted WordPress installations (on your server) as well as web-based WordPress.com blogs.
Click Here to learn more and Download WPTouch WordPress Mobile Theme
WPTap
WPTap offers a free mobile theme for WordPress called WPTap News. There are also additional themes like the WPTap Video Tube and News Gallery ($39.99 and $49.99 respectively) that can enhance video blogs and photo galleries for mobile phones.
The WPTap plugin is primarily made for touchscreen phones like the iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and Blackberry but mentions other WordPress plugins that can be used with older devices. This plugin leaves your regular theme as is, while only displaying when a smartphone/touch phone user accesses it.
Click Here to learn more and Download WPTap Mobile Theme for WordPress
WordPress Mobile Pack
This suite of WordPress tools offers some incredibly helpful mobile-only plugins such as a mobile administrative panel, ad management, mobile analytics (to help track mobile phone traffic to your site) and a barcode scanning widget for direct linking within your site or bookmarking for future use.
The mobile pack works on certain previous WordPress installations and also includes themes that function beautifully on Nokia and Palm devices as well as the iPhone and Android.
Click Here to learn more and Download WordPress Mobile Pack
WordPress Mobile Edition
This WordPress Mobile interface by notable WordPress plugin developer Alex King offers progressive display options for more advanced mobile phones. These progressive enhancements help ensure that your site looks and functions well even with older models and PDA devices.
If you’re targeting an audience that doesn’t always have to have the latest and greatest technology but you still want to make sure your site is compatible with mobile browsers, this is the plugin to download. It does NOT make your WordPress Admin area mobile-friendly but it does include touch screen functionality for iPhones and other advanced mobile programs.
Click Here to learn more and Download WordPress Mobile Edition (you’ll have to scroll down slightly to find it)
WPhone – WordPress Admin Dashboard Plugin
This mobile WordPress dashboard plugin comes in two flavors – Rich, a full-bodied flavor that works exceptionally well with advanced mobile browsers like the iPhone, iPod Touch and other touch screen devices, and Lite, a milder, simpler version that can be used on older phones. It uses no Javascript or other programming features that aren’t supported by simple web browsers.
Click here to learn more and download WPhone Mobile WordPress Admin
Related Info from the Blogosphere…
My friend Joe over at Website Momentum has a great post called “Does Your Site Look Completely Lame When Someone Sees It On a Mobile Phone?“ – Find out what your site looks like on a mobile phone, and if you’re blogging, download one of the plugins/themes above to help make it better.
Tags: android wordpress, blackberry wordpress, iphone wordpress, mobile wordpress, wordpress mobile
Sherice, thanks for this. The less time I have to spend researching these things, the better.
Thanks for this. Sounds silly but I hadn’t got round to doing this because I was wondering if it would make my site look funny on a computer if it looked good for phones! Yeah I know…
Anyway, just installed WordPress mobile pack and all is well!
I had no idea this could be so easy Sherice! Thank you so much for this! And I had been wondering how hard it might be to access my WP admin panel from my phone on the road, and I guess the answer is – not hard at all.
Yes! I had been putting it off myself as I figured I’d have to learn more about WML (the programming langauge used for mobile phones) to create a WordPress mobile theme. Fortunately, there are excellent developers out there who are already on the job! Just another reason why I love WordPress.
Cool! Could it really be so simple and straightforward? This is terrific information, Sherice. Thanks so much for sharing.
I just purchased Tap News and Video Tube from WPtap. I have to say it is the best so far!
Thanks for putting all the info together!
Hello,
Since the 8th of March there’s a new way to make your WordPress page mobile: http://www.osmobi.com.
OSMOBI is still looking for people to test its tool.
Since you are experienced with mobile WordPress tools, you could help us a lot with testing.
If you would like to do so, please visit this page: http://www.osmobi.com/content/new-osmobi-wordpress. You would help us out a lot!
Kind Regards,
Joris De Dobbelaere
OSMOBI team
Awesome resources, Sherice. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Sherice. Keep teaching me more!
Hi Joris,
I’d be happy to take a look at it. Thanks!
[...] 5 Ways to Make Your WordPress Mobile (ielectrify.com) [...]
Here is another plugin for you to add to your list: the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin.
You can check it out here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/ and a few screenshots here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/screenshots/
It works on every phone, allows you to update your mobile SEO as well as upload your mobile logo and retain your brand identity.
Let me know how you get on!