Mobile Responsiveness: Guide to making your Nigerian WordPress website responsive

Smartphones and tablets have become an integral part of our daily lives.

They are the devices we primarily use to access the internet on the go.

To this end, website owners need to ensure that their website is mobile-friendly.

This is no longer an option—it’s a necessity.

It is crucial for providing a positive user experience and optimizing your site for search engines.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the significance of mobile responsiveness and how you can achieve it on your WordPress website.

Adaptive vs. responsive design

To optimize websites for mobile devices, two different mutually exclusive styles can be employed.

Knowing the difference between the two will come in handy, as the majority of website platforms support one of the two.

1. Adaptive design

It involves creating different versions of the same website, each of which is designed for a particular size screen or browser width.

Wix, the website builder, uses an adaptive design for their users to build their site’s desktop version and is provided with a mobile website adaptation that is customizable.

2. Responsive design

It involves creating websites in a single version with a flexible grid that creates a dynamic appearance depending on the screen size and orientation of the device used to view it

This creates a dynamic appearance, depending on the screen size and orientation of the device used to view it.

This is the option available for WordPress websites.

Mobile responsiveness

Mobile responsiveness is the principle of ensuring that websites look good and function well on all devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

In a mobile-responsive design, the layout and content adapt to different screen sizes, allowing users to navigate and interact with the site easily.

The prevalence of mobile devices has significantly changed the way people browse the internet.

A significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile devices, and this trend is expected to continue growing.

Google, the leading search engine, has also prioritized mobile-friendly websites in its search rankings, making mobile responsiveness a crucial factor for search engine optimization (SEO).

Why care about mobile responsiveness?

1. The majority of users are on mobile

More than half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices.

This means that if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out on a huge chunk of potential visitors.

2. To offer users a good experience

A bad mobile experience can damage your brand’s reputation.

If your website is difficult to use on mobile devices, visitors are likely to get frustrated and form a negative impression of your brand.

3. Beat your competition

By making your website mobile-friendly, you’re better equipped to beat your competition and rank higher on Google Search.

Reports show that 62% of companies with a mobile-first website design see an increase in sales over companies with desktop-only websites.

4. Rank higher on Google

Optimize your website with a responsive design, and you’ll be able to gain a better ranking on Google.

Search engines show mobile-friendly websites above other websites.

Benefits of a responsive site

1. Accessibility: Mobile responsiveness is essential for making websites accessible to mobile users, evidently a broader audience than desktop users. Users can access your website from various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers, ensuring a consistent platform experience.
2. Improved user experience: mobile-responsive websites provide a seamless and enjoyable experience for visitors, as they ensure that users won’t have to zoom in and out or scroll sideways to see the content. This will lead to a more positive user experience and make them more likely to return to your website.
3. Boosted search engine rankings: Search engines such as Google want to provide their users with the best possible experience, especially on mobile devices. This is why they give preference to mobile-responsive websites. This means that if your website is not mobile-friendly, it is likely to be ranked lower in search results.
4. Increased conversions: A well-designed mobile website is more likely to convert visitors into customers in that it is easier for users to find what they are looking for and take action on those websites using their mobile devices. Irrespective of your goal—to drive sales, capture leads, etc.—a responsive site positively impacts your conversion metrics.

Useful plugins

1. WP Touch: a mobile plugin for WordPress that automatically adds a simple and elegant mobile theme for mobile visitors to your WordPress website.
2. Smush: image compression plugin for WordPress
3. Responsive Menu – Create Mobile-Friendly Menu: responsive site menu
4. WP Mobile Menu – a mobile-friendly responsive menu
5. WP Responsive Table: create responsive tables.

Guidelines for creating a responsive website

1. Use a responsive WordPress theme

There are many great responsive WordPress themes available.

These themes are designed to adapt to different screen sizes and provide a good starting point for a mobile-friendly website.

When choosing a theme, preview it on a mobile device to ensure it looks good.

Most modern WordPress themes are responsive by default.

2. Use a mobile-friendly plugin

There are several plugins available that can help you make your WordPress website more mobile-friendly.

Some popular options include WPtouch Mobile and Jetpack Mobile.

Also, ensure that all the other plugins you use on your website are mobile-responsive.

Many popular WordPress plugins are designed with mobile responsiveness in mind, but it’s essential to verify this when selecting and configuring plugins.

3. Use a mobile-friendly menu

A traditional drop-down menu can be difficult to use on a small screen.

Opt for a hamburger menu or another mobile-friendly navigation option.

Examples of responsive menu plugins include “Responsive Menu and WP Mobile Menu.”

4. Optimize Images and Media

Compress and optimize images to ensure faster loading times on mobile devices.

Large files can slow down your site, leading to a poor user experience, especially on slower mobile networks.

They also take up a lot of space on a mobile device.

Be sure to optimize your images for mobile by resizing them and using a compression plugin.

Use a plugin like “Smush” to compress your images without sacrificing quality.

5. Optimize For Touch Screens

Making your website design responsive is not enough to offer a great user experience to mobile users.

You have to optimize your website for touch screens as well.

This includes adding touchscreen navigation to the website.

Large fonts and buttons are easy to tap on a touchscreen device.

Also, make forms on your site easier to fill by reducing the number of fields in a form.

6. Make sure your text is readable

Use a large, easy-to-read font size for your website text.

Your visitors shouldn’t have to zoom in on your blog posts just to read their content. This ruins the user experience.

Make sure your fonts are rendered to the correct sizes on different device screens.

7. Keep your content concise and focused

Mobile users have shorter attention spans than desktop users

Hence, get to the point quickly and ensure your content is easy to read.

Pass your message across and nudge them quickly to take action using a clear call to action.

Tell your mobile visitors what you want them to do next, whether it’s signing up for your newsletter or making a purchase.

8. Compress HTML, CSS, and Images

Making your website load faster is another important part of optimizing a website for mobile devices.

This is important to keep visitors from getting frustrated and abandoning your site.

Compress and minify your website’s HTML and CSS to give it a speed boost.

Also, make use of a good caching plugin for the same effect.

9. Make sure your website is fast-loading

Mobile users are impatient.

They have short attention spans and a desire to consume information on the internet.

Make sure your website loads quickly on their devices. Make sure your website loads quickly.

10. Test your website on different devices

Once you have made your changes, be sure to test your website on a variety of mobile devices to make sure it looks and functions correctly.

Consider using online Google tools like the “Mobile-Friendly Test” to evaluate your site’s mobile responsiveness.