Make Your Website Mobile friendly Now 3 Ways. Editors Note This article was originally published by Web Marketing Today. Practical Ecommerce acquired Web Marketing Today in 2. In 2. 01. 6, we merged the two sites, leaving Practical Ecommerce as the successor. Having a mobile friendly website isnt just good practice its a prerequisite. For the first time in history, mobile has exceeded desktop Internet usage, according to com. Score. Mobile now exceeds desktop Internet usage according to com. Score. Mobile users now expect an experience optimized for their device. Nearly half of consumers say they wont return to a website if it doesnt load properly on their mobile devices. On April 2. 1, 2. Google announced that it would begin using mobile friendly sites as a ranking signal. Windows 7 Arabic Language Pack Offline Installer here. Buy Adobe Lightroom 6 Upgrade'>Buy Adobe Lightroom 6 Upgrade. That means that if a website isnt mobile friendly, it will soon see a decrease in search engine rankings. If you are unsure whether or not your site is mobile friendly, the article SEO Mobile friendly Websites No Longer Optional shows you how to check it against Googles new criteria. Are you looking to switch from Joomla to WordPress Check out our step by step guide on how to move your site from Joomla to WordPress. If you test your site and it fails, here are two ways you can optimize your site for mobile quickly, along with a way you can build a mobile friendly site from the ground up. Samsung Software Update Downloads on this page. Create a Mobile Version of Your Current Site. All for Webmasters Free Download Premium Themes, Best Scripts, Best Graphic, Best Design. Learn software, creative, and business skills to achieve your personal and professional goals. Join today to get access to thousands of courses. Ecommerce Template For Joomla 2.5' title='Ecommerce Template For Joomla 2.5' />The quickest way to make your site mobile friendly is to create a mobile version of your desktop site using a conversion platform like b. Mobilized or Duda Mobile. Create a mobile version of the site using platforms like Duda Mobile. While this is a simple way to bring your site into compliance, it requires you to have two separate websites. It can be difficult to update two sites, and users may get frustrated if they find less content or information available on the mobile version versus the desktop. Use Mobile Plugins on Popular CMS Platforms. The most popular website content management systems  Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal all have bolt on solutions to make your site mobile friendly without needing two separate versions. Some include additional ways to customize the mobile experience to not only provide the content, but incorporate other features best used on mobile devices. Word. Press Mobile Plugins. WPtouch is one of the best plugins for Word. Press sites looking to add a custom mobile experience. It provides a paid version that contains additional features for ecommerce sites. Jet. Pack is Word. Press. coms solution for implementing a simple mobile theme to ensure mobile access to its websites. WPtouch is a plugin for Word. Press sites looking to add a custom mobile experience. Joomla Mobile Plugins. Responsivizer and Joomla. Shine both contain simple ways to bring mobile functionality to your site. These may only be necessary if you are using an older version of Joomla, such as 2. Joomla 3. x comes with support for mobile websites. Drupal Mobile Plugins. Drupal offers two modules Theme. Key and Mobile. Theme that detect whether a user is on a mobile device and automatically switches the sites theme to a more friendly mobile appearance. Both provide easy to use interfaces once you get them installed. Google has put together a helpful guide to getting your site mobile friendly, as well as a list of guides for other content management systems. Use a Mobile first Responsive Design. The solutions above are just stopgaps until you can redesign your site by deploying a mobile first strategy using responsive web design practices. Designing the site with a mobile first approach requires planning about how it will be used on mobile devices  an exercise that helps prioritize what content goes on the site. It also begs the question that, if it isnt needed on mobile, then should it be on the desktop version Responsive design furnishes the best possible experience at the mobile level but allows for enhancements to the sites design and functionality as it increases in screen size. The plugin approach to mobile friendly website design, mentioned previously, does not take into account the fact that you may present an inconsistent experience for users on other devices, something you can avoid using responsive design. An example of a website using responsive design. Responsive design ensures your site conforms to any screen size or device. No matter the size of the device used smartphone or tablet you have a website that is similar to and consistent with the desktop version. Whatever You Do, Do it Now. Each option has pros and cons, but in my opinion it is best to get your site mobile optimized before planning an update. In reality, it cant hurt to reevaluate your current site and spruce things up. If you need help planning your content during the redesign, read the article 9 Steps to Planning Website Content. If your site wasnt mobile friendly before, most likely it needs updating on the content and design side as well.