The world goes mobile. Today ever more people tend to browse, read and even shop using mobile devices. To follow the trend, it’s important to create a mobile version of your website. This is specially important if your services are connected with portable devices, hi-tech or some IT technologies.
Creating a mobile version is not that hard as it may seem. As usually, you have several ways to do it. And it doesn’t matter if you have a content management system or not — mobile version may be ready in, literally, seconds. You just need to choose a good tool to make it real.
Layout Tips
Of course, the best way to get a mobile website is to design it yourself. This will let you do fine settings and introduce some special features specially for mobile users. However, it’s easy to do only if you are familiar with web design. But note that in this case you’ll also have to consider some important layout rules that are common for all mobile web pages.
First of all, pay attention to your logo. No matter if it’s a mobile version or a regular web page, it should appear up in the header. It’s also important that the logo file is not bigger than 2 kBs. You know quite well, mobile Internet is still not so fast, so the minimal size is an important rule for all images of your mobile site. The navigation buttons under the logo should also be plain and distinctive.
Next, the body text and the content. If you want readers to feel comfortable, omit add blocks in the mobile version. Make your content as compact as possible. Also, if you choose iPhone and Android users for your target audience, make no text wraps for the pictures, otherwise they’ll jump on different devices, and the markup may change for worse. And, of course, remember the first rule of good web projects — The Quality of Content is No. 1 Priority.
Mobile Version for WordPress Websites
If you have a WordPress-based website, you’re lucky. This and several other content management systems allow you to install special plugins for mobile websites. These apps will identify the mobile device used for visiting your site, and enable the mobile version. Another great way to get a mobile version with WordPress is choosing a responsive theme that will automatically adjust the layout to screen width of any portable gadget.
Here are some examples of plugins you can use to create mobile copies of your web pages: MobilePress, WP-Tap, WP-Touch, etc. Also, you can try such responsive themes as Flexible, DesignFolio, Simple Grid, Unique and many more. Just browse the web, and you’ll see there are many tools ready to make your WordPress website mobile-friendly.
Mobile Version for Non-CMS Websites
If you don’t have a CMS with plugins support, don’t get disappointed. There are still many tools that will make your web pages mobile-ready. You just will need to install a special program, and paste the code of a web page into into it. When you get the mobile code, use it for the pages of your soft website. Normally, web masters make an “m” subdomain for a mobile version — e.g. www.m.yourwebsite.com.
So, how can you choose the best mobile adaptation software? For you not to waste time browsing the web, we’ve selected some 5 great tools. All of them have convenient interface and take seconds to make your original code mobile-ready:
Any of them will help you make a great mobile website. All-in-all, after trying any of these tools you’ll see that it’s not hard at all — you only need to copy and paste the code. We’re sure you can do it without any problem, so good luck and stay tuned!
