Centreville Presbyterian Church was in need of a mobile website. Google Analytics results showed many were viewing the website on smart phones. But on smaller screens, the menu and buttons were almost unusable. The person browsing was challenged to read the small text on the pages.
We considered creating an app for sermon listening and church video viewing. But the website traffic showed many mobile visitors were searching for a new church home. They were reading about service times, directions to the church and what to expect during worship. These new visitors would not download an app for a church they had never visited. A mobile version of the site was needed.
The church site was built using the WordPress theme Light of Peace several years ago. The committee was still satisfied with the desktop version of the site. Many custom code changes had been made to the theme. Changing to a different theme was seen as a major time investment by the website committee.
We looked to see if the theme author had published a responsive version of Light of Peace – one that would automatically resize well on cell phones and tablets. No, the author did not have any such themes.
We decided to try the Elegant Themes plugin called HandHeld. It sounded quick and easy, and it was free because I’m an Elegant Themes member. The plugin installed fine and the mobile site was usable immediately. The only drawback we have seen is that the Handheld plugin does not work with custom page templates.
Here are the extra steps we took for our mobile users:
- created a new mobile menu with only key pages
- simplified welcome page for desktop and mobile
- switched to a better blog category plugin for desktop and mobile
- simplified the map / directions page
- checked the sermon posts to ensure a good listening experience
So in ten minutes from install we had a decent mobile experience. A few hours later, with the changes listed above completed, our members and visitors have access to the latest news, sermons and about us info on their iPhones and Android phones.