Last week I received an exciting email from Google about a product that they just released, called DudaMobile. It is an online tool for converting your existing site into a mobile friendly version for smart phones. It seems as if I have tried every online tool and WordPress plugin on the market for mobilizing a website but honestly none have impressed me. Some do not have flexible design templates or do not update your mobile site when your main site is edited. Being skeptical I tried this tool hoping for a better solution since it is a Google product after all and…. I LOVE IT! It is exaxctly what I have been looking for – something easy to use, information updates as my main site is updated and the design matches the look of my site. Hallelujah to Google!
In 30 minutes with not much tweaking and adjusting, my site now looks great on my iPhone. Try it for yourself! This works for most simple sites and blogs. Even if your site has ecommerce or custom post types such as videos, additional adjustments may need to be made but the tool makes it very easy since you are editing right in a mock up mobile phone.
The final step in the setup process includes 2 options: 1) to forward the mobile site to a URL that includes dudmobile.com or 2) create a moble URL for your site (such as: m.cascadevalleydesigns.com) set up through the DNS settings in you domain control panel. This is something your domain hosting provider can assist you with. The second option is the one I used and recommend so it appears to the visitor that they are still on your domain and not forwarded to a different site. Either way works the same – but the second is more professional as a business.
What’s the catch? It is free to host for the first year and then after that it is $108 annually. This tool is definitely worth it! It is so crucial that EVERY website have a mobile friendly version of their website. Smartphones and tablets now account for about a fifth of US and Canadian web traffic and that number is growing every year (source).
I will soon be adding this tool to our Solutions Packages, but in the meantime if you need help setting up your mobile site using this new tool, please let me know. Depending on the complexity of your site, I can provide you a quote to set up your mobile friendly site. Happy mobilizing!
