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How to Make Your WordPress Blog Mobile-Friendly In Less Than 60 Seconds

Oh how I love quick and easy solutions!  I’ve been meaning to make a mobile-friendly version of this blog for a while now, and it just stayed buried on my To-Do list.  Then a couple of weeks ago I was out and I checked Facebook on my iPhone and someone linked to a post that Peter Shankman wrote.  I pulled it up on my iPhone and what I loved was the site was optimized for a smartphone!  It just served up the post, not the entire site, so it was much easier to read on my iPhone!

Then earlier this month I saw someone mention WPTouch as a plugin that optimizes your blog for viewing on smartphones, and I decided to check it out.  First, here’s what this blog looked like on my iPhone before I added the plugin:

Yeah you’re not reading that without some serious pinchin’ & zoomin.  So I went and installed the WPTouch plugin, and less than a minute later, here’s what the blog looked like on my iPhone:

MUCH better!  Now you clearly see the headline, date, plus number of comments!  Same content, but it’s been optimized to improve viewing on a mobile device.  I went in and changed it to show the full post title and this is what that looked like:

I like that a bit better!  And if you click on one of the posts, here’s what it looks like on your iPhone:

So much prettier than before!  If you want to add WPTouch to your own WordPress blog and make it mobile, it could NOT be easier:

1 – Log into your WordPress dashboard.

2 – Click on Plugins

3 – Search for WPTouch

4 – Install it

5 – Activate it

You’re done!  60 seconds, tops, you can probably do it in closer to 30 seconds.  Then you can go in and edit some of the features as I did.  It will be interesting to see if my mobile traffic, especially from iPhones, increases any.  See, you get the best tips and tricks at #Blogchat 😉

About Mack Collier

My name is Mack Collier and I am a digital marketing and content strategist located in Alabama. Since 2006 I've helped companies of all sizes from startups to global brands such as Adobe, Dell and Ingersoll-Rand, create customer-centric programs, content and experiences. A long-time internet geek, I've been online since 1988 and began using social networking sites in 1991 when I joined Prodigy. Today, I help companies understand how new technologies like web3, crypto and artificial intelligence can integrate with existing marketing strategies to lead to exceptional customer experiences.

Comments

    • Mack Collier says

      Debbie not sure if we are talking about the same thing, but on my iPhone it gives the option at the very bottom to turn the mobile theme On/Off. I turned it off and it switched back then I could switch it back to On. Did you try that?

      • Mack Collier says

        Debbie I just tried it on your blog and I can turn the mobile theme off, but then the blog reloads its no-mobile version and it just says ‘Mobile Theme’ at the bottom and there’s no option to turn the mobile theme back on.

        Very odd, not sure what’s causing that.

  4. Debbie Colangelo says

    Well, I sent an email with my issue to the support staff over at BraveNewCode, the developer of WPTouch and they were, surprisingly, very responsive. Rare.
    They found that it was an issue with my theme.

    Fortunately, (or unfortunately), the problem did not arise with the paid version of the plugin, WPTouchPro, and, quite honestly, at $49, is still a bargain in my opinion. Tons of options, works great! Take another look with your mobile device. Appreciate any feedback!

  5. Heidi Thorne says

    Mack,

    Thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! I’ve been wrangling with the mobile versions of my two blogs for months and just couldn’t get it to look or perform right on a phone. WPTouch was the answer. Keep up the great ideas and Happy Holidays! (@heidithorne on Twitter)

  6. Kathy says

    Thank you thank you thank you! I tried looking at my site on my iPhone a couple of days ago – eek. You were the second site I looked at, the first wanted 65 British pounds. I had a quick look at another site and they wanted even more. I’m hoping the free version of WPTouch will do the trick

    • Mack Collier says

      You’re welcome Kathy, hope it works for you! As Debbie pointed out above, the free version has a bit loopy with some themes, I had someone tell me on Twitter it didn’t work with their theme either. But the team behind the plugin IS pretty responsive, so definitely check them out!

  7. Melody O. says

    Hi Mack! I was skimming your blog, catching up, and I saw this and thought this looked too good to be true. You were right on how super easy this was to install. Thank you for the amazing tip. My little Starbucks blog is now mobile friendly thanks to you!

  12. Tracy says

    I was having trouble getting my layout to work on my Anrdoid browser (content, even set at 100%, was still only stretching to about 75% of the space!), so installing this streamlines it on my phone, and makes it easier to read. Hopefully any of my readers who read smartphone-only, will appreciate the change!

    And I appreciate the post. 🙂 Thanks for the help!

  14. Ryder says

    This plugin was really helpful,so many customization and the final outlook i made was really satisfactory.Still working with it.I highly appreciate the post.Thank you very much.

  15. Omax says

    Thanks… Mine looks like this exactly but how about the logo.. How do you embed the logo and the adverts.. Online business is built on auctioning space. Right?

  16. Isa says

    Oh wow. What an improvement. I gotta try this on my blog. Maybe after that I can start figuring out mobile adsense. Lol.

  17. Patrick Woninck says

    Hi Mack,
    It’s simply great thanks! Will link to your blog;) unfortunately my blog is in Dutch and so are my visitors! luckily almost every dutch citizen have the basic of the English language. Just wanted to say keep up the good work and have a nice day!

  18. Nick says

    I also enjoyed the JetPack plug in for WordPress which essentially accomplishes the same thing, has a bunch of other great features included too.

    It’s by WordPress.com and connects directly with your WordPress.com account.

    Before I went responsive on my site I hadn’t even realized I had a mobile friendly version of my page as it’s baked right into the plug-in.

  21. Sudhi says

    Thanks for the great post. I was also looking around a bit for other ways and found that this plugin is the best way to do the job. The other two options would be to either use a mobile responsive WP theme or to edit the codes yourself(yikes!). This one – much better…