Is Your WordPress CMS Mobile Ready?

WebFadds has added a Mobile Readiness PAK for WordPress CMS installations based on installation, configuration and testing methods reviewed here. Cost ranges between $399 and $999 depending on the complexity of your theme, configuration, and features required. Below you can learn more about how it works. Contact us for a quote today.

As most people have noticed, mobile device use is exploding, and with the high-successful launch of the iPad, now is a great time to consider your Mobile Readiness strategy for your website.  Is it ready for web visitors with tiny smartphone screens, and also for site admins working on the road?

Smartphone Trends = Mobile Browsing:

• The top three smartphone makers sold 800 million units last year — all carrying web browsers that do better with sites optimized for their small screens
• Apple is on target to sell around 5 million iPads (close to 3 million already) — just in 2010 — and sold 25 million iPhones in 2009 (a 100% increase over the previous year)
• Flash is not supported by the majority of mobile phones. Steve Jobs has said the iPad will not support Flash. Flash looks to be sunsetting in favor of HTML5 video standards.

Solutions to Make Your WordPress CMS Website Mobile Ready:

There are two sides to the site mobile readiness game, both involving simplifying delivery of site content and functions for a smaller screen — for site visitors, and site administrators.  And, the solution technology is emerging and evolving quickly.  At last count there were  eleven plugins for WordPress with mobile solution features, and more than one online service designed for same.  We’ve tested several and believe the following three solutions are flexible enough to accommodate just about any WordPress CMS set-up.

Above, the Wapple plugin for your WordPress CMS aims to make on the road editing easy for administrators using a smartphone.

For Administrators, Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress: This plugin helps you write posts and manage your site from mobile devices. WordPress Mobile Admin is a WordPress control panel for your mobile. It works on every device and is fully featured. You can write and edit posts, moderate and reply to comments, update and manage tags, categories and pages.  Learn more here.

For Visitors to your Sites - WordPress Mobile Pack: The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site to your iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini mobile, Palm Pre and BlackBerry Storm visitors without modifying a single bit of code (or affecting) your regular desktop theme. The theme also includes the ability for your visitors to easily switch between the WPtouch view and your site’s regular theme.   Learn more here.

Above, Mobify is a one source solution for mobile design, analytics, mobile advertising, and integration with Social Media.

Combine mobile design and ads with Analytics with Mobify: Mobify is an interesting service play offering extended styling to design a mobile layout for your website, the ability to capture mobile traffic from Twitter & Google, and a platform to manage mobile analytics & advertising. They have their own WordPress plugin for smooth integration in to your WordPress CMS.  Take a tour at Mobify.

We believe that the best solution will involve a couple of the technologies profiled here, and selected to best meet your website mobile mission objectives.  Contact us today for a no obligation consultation.