It is very important to make a WordPress mobile website. You can either use any responsive WordPress theme or you can create mobile version of your website.

WPtouch is an excellent plugin to turn your website into a WordPress mobile website.

WPtouch is mobile plugin for WordPress that displays mobile friendly theme. The plugin has admin panel that allows user to change the appearance of the website.

Features of WPtouch

• Provides 5 times faster theme than desktop or responsive theme.
• Delivers fast and accurate website without affecting the original website theme.
• CSS interface in plugin loads theme faster on mobile devices.
• Provides you an option to switch from regular theme to mobile theme only.

So, Let’s quickly walk through installation and configuration of WPtouch plugin to build a mobile friendly website.

Step 1: Installation of WPtouch 

If you wish to install WPtouch plugin for free, you can download it from WordPress.org. For the installation process you can check our previous WordPress guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

If you wish to install and activate the premium version of the plugin you can purchase it from here.

Upon activation of the plugin, you’ll see WPtouch menu in your WordPress admin area like below screenshot:

Step 2: Core Settings

General

Click on WPtouch >> Core settings. You’ll see the screen like below screenshot:

You’ll see different option where you can give site and change the display mode of your website. Give the title of your website you want to display in your website. Regionalization section will automatically detect the language according to the region.

In Display Mode section you can change the display of the theme on your website. You can activate the theme for all your mobile visitors or you can also select the option to display only for site administrators.

There is an option to set the landing page of your website. You can set this page either default or you can also landing page from WordPress pages. There is an option to to add custom page. In this section you’ve to give slug or URL you want as a landing page.

Backup is available with pro version of the plugin. You can also change the settings of the Admin panel.

Once you’re done, remember to click on Save Changes button.

The plugin also allows you to set its compatibility. You can add shortcodes which will be removed when WPtouch is active. WPtouch also provides you an option to ignore the URLs so that WPtouch won’t load with these URLs.

Step 3: Themes And Extension

Default and only theme available with the pro version is Bauhaus. Other extensive themes are available with the pro version of WPtouch. There are no such extensions available in free version. All the extensions available with pro version only.

When you select Bauhaus theme, you’ll see 5 tabs on theme page:

• General: In General section you can set no. of posts in the listings page, post metadata, comments, enable feature slider and how your login form works etc.
• Branding: In this section you can select theme colors, upload site logo, apply HTML to set theme footer. This section also has the option to add social links in the footer section.
• Bookmark Icons: This section will determine the icon displayed on the home screen when user bookmark your website.
• Web app mode: This section is available with pro version only.
• Advertising: This is also available in pro version.

Once you’re done with all the settings click on Save Changes button. You can also see preview how your website look on mobile devices. You’ll see the final result like below screenshot:

WPtouch Pro

You may noticed that many of the settings are restricted to the pro versions and these features are very attractive. You’ll find number of themes in pro version, backup and restore option, responsive images and more. The starting price of WPtouch pro is $49. You can see the price list here.

With the free version you can make your WordPress website mobile friendly within 15 minutes or less. If you’ve got any queries, feel free to ask.