5 WordPress Plugins to Optimize blog for Mobile Devices

Now more and more people are using mobile devices to access the Internet. So, it is important you to have a mobile friendly blog. As per the data available, 34% users now use their smartphone to access Internet. So, you cannot ignore this much of visitors. If you are website is not optimized for mobile devices, you are loosing lots of visitors and hence revenue. In order to reach those readers, you need to ensure that your website looks good on mobile devices and works fine. If you are using WordPress, you can use available plugins to make sure that your website is properly optimized for mobile devices.

In this post, I am adding top mobile optimization plugins which are available for WordPress and lets you have a mobile optimized blog quickly.

Before writing more about plugins, I know you have a quick question in mind that using a responsive theme will solve the problem. Yes, you are right. But that responsive page will be of same size and will take time in loading on mobile devices. These plugins serve very light weight web page to visitors. So, you can try these plugins too even if you have responsive theme to check the performance. If you think that these plugins are doing better than your responsive theme, you can use the plugins to offer different mobile layout.

Plugins to Optimize blog for Mobile Devices

1. WPtouch

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WPtouch is the most popular WordPress plugin for having a mobile optimized blog. This is a WordPress plugin which automatically enables a simple mobile theme for mobile visitors. You can also customize the mobile theme from the admin panel. You do not need to do a single line of code for customizing your website’s mobile theme with this plugin. This plugin is easy to install and setup. Plugin also gives users an option to switch to the regular theme from the mobile only theme. With almost 6 million downloads, this plugin is very popular among bloggers and WordPress users.

The pro version of WPTouch is also available starting from $49 which includes security updates, more features, cloud theme and full support. If you think you need the premium features, you can think of switching to the premium packages. If you can afford, it totally recommend to go for the premium package for using the plugin with its full power.

2. WP Mobile Edition

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WP Mobile Edition is another nice WordPress plugin which lets you optimize your WordPress blog for smartphones and tablets. This is very easy to use with available settings page. This plugin automatically detects if a visitor is from mobile device and then loads the mobile theme. It also gives visitors an option to switch to the regular blog’s theme. It comes with a good mobile detector which means device detection will work for all the latest mobile devices.

It is designed to be as fast as possible and service fast website is beneficial for better search engine ranking. It takes the full advantage of the device’s screen to give a good user experience. You can choose from 8 different color schemes available.

3. WP Mobile Detector Mobile Plugin

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WP Mobile Detector Mobile Plugin automatically detects if the visitor is using smartphone or desktop for accessing your website. Based on the visitor’s device, it decides what theme to display. If visitor is from mobile device, it offers a mobile optimized theme. You can select the desired mobile theme from available 7 themes pre-installed. You can also create your own theme to use with this plugin.

This plugin needs extra effort because themes are not designed as per good user experience. So, I recommend you to use your own custom theme. If you think that you cannot add your own theme, you can go for pro version of the plugin for support and better feature. Being true, I was not impress with the free version of the theme and didn’t try the pro version of the plugin.

4. HandHeld Mobile Plugin

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HandHeld Mobile Plugin is by Elegant Themes. But it works perfect with any WordPress plugin and offers an alternate layout that will be displayed to your mobile visitors. That alternate layout offers faster and quicker reading mobile that is also user-friendly. For using this plugin, you need to have Elegant Themes membership.

If you opt for Elegant themes membership, you will get unlimited access to all premium themes, plugins and any future updates or new release. I totally recommend using Elegant themes membership.

Also read: Elegant Themes: Most Affordable WordPress Theme Pack

5. Any Mobile Theme Switcher

Any Mobile Theme Switcher is a very basic plugin which works in similar manner. It detects the mobile browsers and then loads the mobile theme as per the settings you saved. It comes with many different themes and you can select any depends on the your choice.

Pro version of the plugin comes with more feature and then it works fine with W3 total cache. Mobile detection is also better in pro version.

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