The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

There is a lot of talk about how Wordpress and mobile does not mix.

We have been doing these for a long time now and with the new GOMO tester it now shows that Wordpress is perfectly ok to use for Mobile Websites.

http://mobilemagazine.mobi/wp-conten...zine.mobi_.pdf

This is how Google sees our Mobile Magazine using wordpress and as you can see is loading and working fine and after all isn't Google the one we want to please.

The old WC3 validator is out of date and while produces some good things to help you validate your site GOMO I believe is a lot more relevant today.Q

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

Hi Quentin,

I totally agree with you with regards Wordpress and mobile but in my honest opinion i personally think the GoMo test sometimes is hit and miss and find the results sometimes misleading on how mobile friendly a site actually is (often giving a lower grading than expected maybe this has changed recently - however it makes me wonder if the lower scores are represented so as you contact one of their "mobile experts" for work or consultation on your site) i wouldn't recommend people use it as their only source for checking how mobile friendly their sites are.

Whilst you mention the mobileOK ready test is outdated, your right to say do not write it off its still a very good source to use during the development stage of a mobile site - the only TWO key rating elements that need to be adjust and that are really affecting peoples scores are:

1) the extremely low file size requirements of the mobile site - it currently looks for 20kb or less
2) the need for XHTML MP validation

In order for a mobile site to be viewed on a smartphone it does not necessarily need to be XHTML MP compliant however Google search for non smartphones ie google.com/m requires that your site is XHTML MP compliant in order to get the green handset icon next to your listing, and the 20kb limit could definitely be increased there is zero chance of you coming under this limit if you want to use jquery mobile hence why the need to increase file size limit.

Getting a big fat zero or scores sub 85% on the mobileOK checker should still be assessed and be a potential concern in my opinion based on whats causing it. Whilst smartphones are becoming more popular there are still a great percentage of users using feature phones and non smartphones - the higher your score the broader the range of phones will be able to view your mobile site and have a better user experience.

With Wordpress i have no reservations what so ever that it can be used for mobile. In fact it can be made to be very mobile friendly depending on how the mobile site is deployed - what this comes down to is the WP themes, or the plugins and the actual developers creating them and their understanding of mobile web development itself and Wordpress. But sadly not all solutions are the same, i see many people using responsive design as a mobile solution, and it really shouldn't... perhaps in 12 or 18 months but not right now, the best solution i feel is an adaptive one that renders based on the phones user agent. An adaptive design will render the most optimized content for your mobile device not just hide it, re-arrange it, or scale it.

Our current Mobile Wordpress Framework which we are still developing is adaptive and can still validate to mobileOK 100% as well as gets 99% on the Google Mobile Speed test - we have worked very hard to accomplish that.

People should not just go off blindly using any old WP mobile plugin but instead should thoroughly test what they are using. The long term it will lead to happy clients, and better mobile experience for the end user. Unless the overall content and design of a responsive theme is very basic and lightweight i have seen some appalling load speeds, and for phones that don't have the luxury of 4G LTE that's not going to fly, Google recommends just a 4second load time, and am thinking they are not meaning by someone connected by Wifi or anything higher than a 3g connection! lol

Whilst a responsive theme looks good, there's no reason why an adaptive one can't either.

As time moves forward phones and wireless providers they are obviously providing faster services and quicker phones but not everyone has access to those luxuries. So thought should still be given to those on inferior service and devices.

Bottom line as Quinten rightly states Wordpress is good for mobile but for me not necessary all solutions are the same - test and test again to see what you are getting yourself into, especially if this a paid solution for a client.

I would recommend people still pay very close attention to how Google rates, ranks and assesses mobile websites - this is currently our determining factor on how we deploy our mobile sites.

At the end of the day each to their own - this is just 4cents :)

Jay

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

You guys are patriarchs in this field and I feel I benefit just from observing a conversation between you.

Both GoMo and mobileOK are very valuable tools in testing. Though it appears none covers everything and recognizing the idiosyncrasies of each is necessary in evaluating the results they return.

I've stuck to html/css templates up to this point but I'm nearly persuaded to give WP a try. OK then, I will, just to see what kind of score I can achieve on the validators. Of course, if I'm serious about offering mobile services I know I need to have a cms option.

Out of interest, both of you, if you don't feel constrained by the mobileOK 20kb limit on file sizes, what is your notional limit?

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

I think it might be important to point out that "Wordpress" itself isnt the issue. It is simply a CMS...

The issue is that it doesnt innately compress down the Image Files to enable a Mobile site to load more quickly.

Many inexperienced Website "Designers" use Wordpress to "Design" sites because they know Squat about Coding so they know nothing about image compression either.

So the Loadtime issue isnt about it being a Wordpress site, its about the Designer not taking the time to reduce the file size of the Images on the site.

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

true but as well as optimizing images, you also have to take in to account caching and load speed times, and the way WP handles all of the other 3rd party scripts and plugins uses, not to mention try to conform to mobile best practices and validation...

We haven't come across anything that readily addresses all of those issues under one specific component/plugin/theme installation as well as handle user agent detection, meet our own mobile standards and requirements as well as those set by W3C and mobile best practices so the only option for us was to set about doing that with our own WP mobile framework, its something we have been working for approximately 14 months now! :)

@youngsamari - I would say always try to be as efficient as possible with file sizes optimize them for mobile wherever possible. Worse case scenario if i am not mistaken jquery mobile compressed is 24kb add to that your css, images and content i would say if you can keep below 50kb that would be great - perhaps maxing out at 100kb wouldn't be too unreasonable especially if you are caching everything you can. Anything over that i would suggest you review your content.

HTH

Jay

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

Jay,

wow, that's a big bit over 20kb.

Interesting. Much appreciated again.

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

That said If your not using jquery you should be able to keep your pages below 50kb! :)

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

I think using Wordpress for mobile sites is extremely versatile.

I have been creating various design mock ups for pratice and have found that as long as you pay attention to image sizes etc, the site load and display very well.

Thanks to Quentins suggestion that people should try Artisteer to make the sites, i have found that system very easy to undertake.

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

And I didn't even know what Word Press was until about three months ago. I'm amazed at how much everyone in WF is to willing to help others out.

Kudos to you all.

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

I totally agree that using Wordpress for mobile sites is the smart way to go. Also rumor has it that Google LOVES Wordpress, therefore better search engine rankings.

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

It is also a good idea to use this plugin or add the code to your wordpress site for responsive videos.

FitVids.JS - A lightweight, easy-to-use jQuery plugin for fluid width video embeds.

Thge site has a nice short video and this one is quite detailed


Quentin

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

Please man... I see your "compliments" apear all over the WF and you do not contribute at all.. If you have nothing serieus to say, just don't say anything. Looks to me you are building up you post count or something. Please dont...

Thanks!

Re: The Myth of Mobile Sites and Wordpress
 

i use ifeature theme from wordpress and it works great on smart phones