With mobile phones turning into mini computers in our hands, it is not surprising that more and more people are surfing the web on the go. The fact therefore, is that more and more people are reading blogs while on the go. I personally don’t on my mobile but I do so on a tablet sometimes.
For bloggers, there is this universal wave to push blogs to display mobile themes or a mobile friendly version of our blogs to those who browse from a portable device. The pros say we should, because it loads faster and is easier to read. There are a few ways you can do it, from the complex (setting up a mirror site with mobile capabilities) to the simple (installing a plugin). If you use the WordPress.com and Blogger free platforms, its already done for you or you can switch it on in the settings (one of that).
But really, do you need it and should you use a mobile theme for your blog? For readers, do you prefer that a blog have a mobile theme when you read it on your mobile device?
I’m going to buck the trend here and say no, you do not. For me, if a blog or website has a good and easy on the eye layout, its mobile friendly as it stands. If it loads easily on your computer, it should load just as easily and quickly on your mobile. These are the 2 reasons why most people use a mobile blog theme – speed and ease of reading.
Mobile themes usually strip away all the hard work you put into your web design and if truth be told, makes every site look pretty generic. If I wanted that, I’d not bother with my blog theme. If you browse around many websites and blogs built on the WordPress platform, you will notice this. Most blogs and websites on the WordPress platform use the WPTouch plugin which is great for turning websites/blogs mobile but which in the process, makes them all look the same, unless the blog owner took some trouble to tweak the design.
My other reason for not going with a mobile theme for my blog is not because I think my layout is optimum or perfect. It isn’t and more work could be put into it. But it is pure and simple fear.
A year or so back, I jumped on the mobile theme bandwagon. I used a plugin – WordPress Mobile Pack – and it worked. I had a desktop and mobile version of my blog and it didn’t look like the generic WPTouch design. I thought it was perfect until one day, I checked my blog for errors and noticed more than a THOUSAND blog errors. Every page had random additional code tagged on, which resulted in the crawlers seeing 404 error pages and this number was replicating by the hundreds even as I watched.
It was a nightmare. I found no help online, so I devised my own codes, uninstalled the plugin and managed to contain most of the problem. I’m still seeing those errors today and it is a grim reminder of how my blog very nearly bit the dust, thanks to rogue code and a vain attempt to please the masses and jump on a bandwagon I probably had no business jumping on.
I’m not saying that having a mobile theme is a bad thing of course. It is great. It loads up quickly on a mobile phone and looks clean and neat. I am sometimes surprised when I click to the web version of a blog, to see that their original website is sometimes impossible to read. The mobile theme is good for keeping the mess away and the blog simple so content gets across. That is not an excuse for a cluttered web design of course.
But I also believe that as mobile phones and tablets now have larger screen space and faster processors; and most people who will use their mobiles for surfing the internet will use wifi or large data packages there is no real need to strip away one’s blog to its bare bones anymore. So long as a blog theme is kept simple and easy to read and load, my view is that a mobile theme is a nice option but not necessary. Tine has the alternate view and its worth reading why she thinks its a good option to have 🙂
No rights or wrongs, just how you want to do your thing.
If you blog, do you use a mobile theme for your blog? Is there a reason you did or don’t? If you are a reader, does it matter to you if a blog uses a mobile theme? Those on the blogger and wordpress.com free platforms have it as a matter of course I believe. If you aren’t sure, check your blog on your mobile phone and see if it looks different. If so, its mobile friendly 🙂
Paris B
Simple Blogging Tips are some simple tips I have for fellow bloggers, based on my own experiences. I’m no ‘guru’ but I hope they will help you. You may read up on previous Simple Blogging Tips here.
Oh wow, I really do understand why you don’t have a mobile theme anymore, it sounds like a real nightmare! I use wp touch, but it’s not perfect tbh, it sometimes give weird bugs, but until now I can only hope for the best. You are right about the lay-out, it looks very generic in a mobile theme, and thats what I really dislike about it. My dear bf will make an own mobile theme in the future though (when he ever has time!). Some blogs are very tricky to read without a mobile team, I must admit that, but I mainly read all the blogs on my good old trusty computer! I really love these kind of discussions! 😀
Thanks for sharing, Teri! It was a right nightmare. I didn’t even realize the errors until a few weeks later and it was like a monster 😛 I do notice that most WordPress blogs use WPTouch. Even the default wordpress.com site uses WP Touch so I guess if its good enough for them, its good enough for everyone else 🙂 I am just too chicken to go down that route again 😀 I also read most blogs on my computer or wait till I have wifi then use my mobile 😀
Personally, it doesn’t really bother me that much whether a blog has a mobile theme or not. But a very small amount of blogs do get tricky to navigate on small devices, like the iPhone.
I use the default WordPress mobile template. It’s not the best design, but it serves its purpose.
I have to agree with you about the tricky bit so I do tend to stay away from reading blogs online. When I do, I use an RSS Reader to get the gist then click through if I’m interested 🙂 Leaving comments is a whole different matter though!
I love seeing pretty blog templates, but the lousy 3G network in Singapore makes it exasperating when it takes forever to load something which is more picture or code intensive, especially when I’m in a train underground. As a reader, I feel that templates are important, but so is content so a default mobile theme does not bother me that much 🙂
Haha you complain about your 3G and I’ll complain about mine >.< The only difference is that I don't have to go underground hehe... To read blogs I usually wait till I can get wifi then I load up. Else, I just skip it unless I"m absolutely desperate e.g. when I'm googling reviews in the middle of a pharmacy LOL!
I’m all for mobile themes, for the simple reason that it’s easier on my eyes. I sometimes get irritated when I have to zoom in on a website just to make the text a nice readable size – and this is even with my pretty huge Samsung Galaxy Note screen, so I don’t know how others do it with smaller screens. >.<
We squint! LOL!! Perhaps I don’t feel it so much because I don’t use my mobile to do a lot of blog/website reading and the iPad is pretty large for reading purposes although I do sometimes have to zoom in for some sites. I do like the ease of reading mobile themes too so I guess I”m a hypocrite in that I don’t and won’t install one 😛
I believe that mobile theme is neccessary for bloggers whose ori blog has A LOT of background photos and or widgets or animation or advertisements.. It takes te longest time to load and sometimes the phois in te content would just stop loading.
I personally hate browsing that type of blog usig iPod… Which sometimes make me drop following that particular blog eventually.
On a side note, I love how the mws is right now. Simple, carry a character on it’s own, Easy to browse and not swarmed by moving advert. This is great!
Thank you for the feedback Gin! Be sure to let me know if my tweaking ever makes things unreadable or hard to load 🙂 I think you may be right. Background images can really take a long long time to load and a mobile theme can help those who are browsing on mobiles. Although I started out with background images, I abandoned them all in favour of white space. If I get impatient loading my own website, imagine how others feel right? 😀
it is very sweet u are being so considerate! *hug*
by the way, is it only me or it is true that all the insta updates are not shown on the front page? i have trouble following the insta updates posts because of that. it doesnt show up at all! the only way i could read it now is to scroll to the bottom of the page and check at the ‘prev post’ or ‘next post’ link. thats the only place i can find them…=(
When I ran the last poll thing, some people commented it was distracting. So, I moved it to the sidebar where it doesn’t update in the main page, but appears in the sidebar. Thought it was less distracting, and it still appears in email updates and readers. I have changed it back for now so you should see it popping up now. Decided to just run with it and not hide it 🙂
Mine is just auto-switched by the Blogger, and will look plain on mobile. I don’t really mind actually.
I don’t really mind reading any blog on mobile as long as when I enlarge, the words auto-shift to fit my screen width, so I don’t have to scroll left and right, just up-down. That said, MWS works just fine on my handphone.
Thanks for the feedback Jyoan! I like it too when I zoom in and the words auto arrange themselves to fit my screen. That way, its so much easier to read! When I come across a website that doesn’t do that and I have to scroll left and right, I give up. I suppose having a mobile theme will have its benefits. Wish I had the guts to get back in there 😛
I’m waving my hands in the air frantically in favour of mobile themes. Much easier for me to read and comment on the go. Having said that, if the mobile theme setup screws up the website, then I wouldn’t bother with it at all. Better to read a full and functioning website on the phone than a wonky, cacat-case one.
I don’t like mobile themes on tablets though. Hate the Swipe function for WordPress blogs on the iPad. Much prefer the full site 🙂
Have to agree with you re: easier to read on mobiles. Some sites aren’t made to be read on a mobile at all. And yes, I hate the swipe function on WP and Blogger. Makes me loose my place every time! I actually am not sure why a tablet is recognized as a mobile. The larger screen is meant to help make it easier to surf so most sites should render well enough on a tablet.
adambeauty has a mobile theme but then that’s a commercial site. I can’t make up my mind whether I prefer the mobile or desktop version when surfing on my phone. He has both versions available.
I quite like it when commercial sites have a mobile theme. It makes it easier to shop! 😉
I don’t like mobile themes because I’m already used to the design and layout of the current blogs that I’m following. The mobile themes isn’t that interesting to look at since it is almost the same. I think what make a blog nice and interesting is not only the content, but the layout and ease of navigation through the blog. And since I’m using a Galaxy Note or Ipad, the screen is big enough to view the blog in it’s original theme. That’s why I prefer the original themes better that the mobile.
I share a lot of your thoughts too, Mira. I sometimes feel a bit ‘cheated’when I go to the full site and realize its not as user friendly or easy on the eye as it looked on the Moore. Meh…
hey Paris…thanks for all the info about this whol eissue coz since sometime I had been thinking quite hard about this. the blog when viewed as such in blogger, on ehas to scroll right and left and is particularly inconvinient 🙁 so many go for mobile design or plugins!!!
I find that Blogger’s mobile version doesn’t resize the photo so there’s still scrolling to have to be done if its a big photo. But the site does load up faster in mobiles so maybe it’s a good thing too.
oh didn’t know that!!! atleast one good thing 🙂
I have a love-hate relationship with the mobile theme. I love how it become easier to read in mobile theme because I don’t have to zoom in and out, left and right to read but I hate it when the picture shown are too big sometimes when you swipe it to the left so you can have a look of the full pic, it turns to previous blog post which gets me irritated most of the time.
yes I totally agree! the swiping function makes me crazy!!! most of the time I just switch to web version which is much easier for me.
Have to agree with you there, Cynthia! That side swipe function really bugs me too especially when I lose my place. I don’t want to read anymore after that 😛
agree!had the same prob too.I use mobile theme but I tend to change back to web version.dilemma..
Im using the WPTouch plugin and do have some issues with it. But atm cant find anything better than that, so still have to stick with it. I dont mind the simple design that it provides. Because for me, I like things to be simple on the mobile version. Im using iphone so the screen isnt that big, but I understand those who use tablets may not like it.
I already decided this from the very beginning. Its not only convenient but it also another way to attracts traffic to my blog.
I personally think the WpTouch plugin is the best for turning a site into a mobile one. I’m not sure about the rest, although the ultimate would be the mobile mirror site. It’s a good one to have, but I dare not experiment anymore 😛
I had the exact same problem when I installed a mobile plugin on my blog, completely screwed it up. I can’t remember what one I used but it crashed my whole site one day and we had to go through the rigmarole of going through and turning off all the plugins to find the culprit. I’ve never bothered to install one back on there and I’m happy with that.
Gah! I totally feel you, Megan! In my case, my blog didn’t crash but the 404s were crazy! It’s horrible how one plugin can totally screw up the whole site right? Especially sucks when we think we’re trying to make things better