How to Get Your Website to Fit on a Phone Using a WordPress Template

Ever wonder how the big websites get their content to look so clean and easy to read on a phone? How about those sleek magazine websites you see plastered with content on a tiny screen? How about those massive e-commerce stores that work so hard to perfect their lay out on a small phone screen?

Well, it’s all about creating a fluid, flexible, and readable site that works on all devices. And in case you’re wondering, no, we’re not referring to making your website mobile-friendly – though that would help – but rather creating a design that adjusts to fit smaller screens without losing its essence.

Use Media Queries

The best way to fit a website to smaller screens is with media queries. These are conditional snippets of CSS – the “skinny” version of the code that makes up a website’s design – that target different screen sizes. When a visitor opens up your site on their phone, for example, the media queries will trigger and the layout will adjust to match the dimensions of a phone screen.

The reason this is such a useful tool is that you can use one media query to target multiple devices with a single line of code. So, if you’re worried about your readers struggling to read your content due to it being too small, you can use media queries to ensure that it’s properly formatted and easy to read regardless of the device used.

Make Sure Your Website Works Worldwide

Did you know that there are over a billion browsers used each day around the world? That’s a staggering figure, and it makes me wonder how many of those people are going to be able to access your website. You obviously want to ensure that everyone can view your content, but just because someone is in Germany doesn’t mean that they’re necessarily going to be able to access your website if it’s not localised for them.

There are various ways in which you can localise your content for different audiences. One of the simplest is to use a plugin like WPLangLoader to easily switch between English and any other language you want to support. It’s always good practice to support multiple languages when localising content, so when a user visits your site from a different country, they’ll be able to view it in their native language.

Leverage Browser Cache

One of the great things about the WordPress platform is that it’s incredibly flexible when it comes to caching. You can leverage the power of the browser to actually cache your content for you, so whenever a user visits your site, the content they see is the most up-to-date version.

This is especially useful for websites that don’t change that much – like product websites or social media platforms – as the browser will cache the content and serve it to visitors regardless of whether or not the content has been updated. Obviously the more content you have, the more likely you are to see differences between old and new versions – but even then, the benefits of caching are tremendous. Just think about how much faster your site will load if the content is already in the browser’s cache.

Use Content Redirection

One of the best things about the WordPress platform is that it comes with tonnes of great functions out of the box. Did you know that you can use the built-in content redirect feature to easily send users to a different URL when they visit your website?

This is perfect for e-commerce websites as it means that customers can’t accidentally click a link and end up on a different website. Instead, they’ll see a “page not found” error message and be forced to try again.

Customise Your 404 Page

Something else that comes with the WordPress platform is the ability to easily create your own 404 page. Did you know that WordPress gives you the option of displaying custom messages when visitors try to access pages that don’t exist?

This is incredibly useful when you’re trying to design a flexible website, as it means that you don’t have to worry about whether or not the content on a given page exists. Instead, you can display a message to tell the user what went wrong.

Use SVG & CSS Pixels

Another great thing about the WordPress platform is that it allows you to leverage the power of SVG and CSS pixels to create vector graphics and typography that are incredibly flexible and will scale to any size. Did you know that you can also use the SVG and CSS pixel tools to create custom, scalable vector graphics (SVG) for your website?

For example, let’s say you want to create a logo for your business. You can use the SVG and CSS pixel tools to style the text and put a nice background behind it. Once you save the file, it’s ready to use in your website. No matter what size screen you have, your logo will always look sharp.

Make Sure You Use The Right Textures And Icons

If you’re using vector graphics on your site, you can’t just chuck in any old image. Instead, you need to pick a perfect texture for the piece of artwork you’re using. Did you know that you can also use the icon tool in WordPress to create custom icons for your site?

Icons are incredibly useful on websites as they save you the effort of having to create something similar manually. Plus, they provide a quick and easy way for visitors to understand what the site is about. If you don’t have a logo for your business, you can use the icon tool to create a unique symbol that’ll be instantly recognisable.

Use Video Instead Of Just Text

We’ve already established the fact that the WordPress platform is incredibly flexible when it comes to caching content. But did you know that you can use the same functionality to easily create your own video background?

This is something that’s becoming more and more useful as time goes by. Video isn’t going anywhere, and it’s always a great way to impart information. Did you know that you can use the WordPress video background function to create a video that’ll be seamlessly looped behind the content?

So, instead of just text, you’re going to see a video background with content written over top? Or, are you going to see a still image with a block of text superimposed over it? It’s all up to you.

Set Up Regular Backups

Did you know that it’s best practice to regularly back up your WordPress database? This way, if anything did happen to your site – like a hacker broke in and changed everything – you’d still have a copy of all of the data. Regular backups are also good practice; it’s always a good idea to make sure that you have a backup just in case you ever need it.

As a last point, let’s discuss the most basic and fundamental thing required of any website owner: security.

It’s always important to keep your website safe from hackers and other criminals, and one of the best (and free) ways to do this is by using a reputable security plugin.

WordPress comes with many great security features out of the box, such as wp-secure-admin – which is used to administer your site – and login passwords stored in a secure way. Did you know that you can use the free WordFence plugin to add an extra layer of security to your site?

There are many reasons why this is such a good idea, but the main reason is that it creates a barrier between you and any potential hacker. With these simple steps, you’ll be able to protect your website and keep it safe from prying eyes.