How to Preview WordPress Sites on Mobile Devices

[ad_1] Whether you’re designing sites for clients or managing your own WordPress website, it’s important to know how it looks and works on a mobile device before you make any changes public. You probably have a mobile phone you can check your site with. But if you’re working on your laptop or desktop, it’s inconvenient to have to keep going back to your phone. And even if your website looks ok on your phone, there are a lot of phones and tablets out there. Just because it looks ok to you, doesn’t necessarily mean it will work perfectly on every different screen size, browser, and operating system. So how exactly do you preview WordPress sites on mobile devices? In this guide, we’ll cover a few easy methods of testing your site for mobile without leaving your computer. Why is it So Important to Test the Mobile Version of Your Site? Mobile devices overtook desktop computers as the primary method of browsing the web a few years back. Mobile devices accounted for 54.8% of global web traffic in the first quarter of 2021, and mobile phones and tablets took 57.37% of the market share worldwide over the last year. In some global regions, mobile use overshadows desktop use by a much bigger margin. For example, in India, mobile has over 77% market share. In response to growing mobile internet use, Google has started to penalize sites that don’t provide a good user experience on mobile. There have been a number of algorithm updates over the last few years designed to make the search experience better for mobile users. The 2015 “Mobilegeddon” update was the most drastic, as Google shifted to a mobile-first model. As a WordPress user, choosing a mobile responsive theme is the first step to making sure your site looks good and works well on mobile. But with the block editor, users have more control over the formatting of individual pages than previously. So it’s important to check how your site looks on a mobile device every time you add new content, even if you’re not developing themes or plugins. This is especially important if you’re using a visual drag and drop page builder like Divi or Elementor to create new page layouts or add content to your site. Method 1: Using the Built-in WordPress Mobile Preview You’ve always been able to preview your WordPress posts and pages before you publish them. But did you notice that you can also preview how your site looks on mobile? There are two places you can access a mobile preview in WordPress: From the post and page editor (not always accurate) From the WordPress customizer WordPress Post/Page Editor Preview Let’s first take a look at how the mobile preview in the Post and Page editor works. Click the “Preview” button that’s next to the “Publish” or “Update” button. In the drop-down menu that pops up, select “Tablet” or “Mobile” before clicking. This will immediately adjust the size of the page editor. However, this is a very rough and ready estimation of how your content will look and may not be very accurate, particularly if you’re using custom blocks or externally loaded CSS. You can see in this example that the editor has simply resized the blocks to fit into a smaller screen and wrapped the text. However, if you look at the live site at a smaller screen size, you’ll realize that it doesn’t look like this at all. Instead, the responsive design settings have kicked in to rearrange the blocks and resize the text. Here’s how it actually looks on a smaller browser screen: Lesson: don’t trust the mobile preview in the Post and Page editor.  To be fair, this is a pretty new feature and has only been around since WordPress 5.5, which was released in mid-2020. Hopefully, the mobile page preview will be improved in the future. WordPress Customizer Preview So is the preview in the WordPress Customizer any better? Let’s take a look. To access the WordPress mobile preview, go to Appearance > Customize in your WordPress dashboard. This will display a preview of how your site looks and allow you to see how changes you make to the style change its appearance in real-time. You can navigate to any page on your site and scroll up and down just as if it’s the live version of the site. To see how your site will look on a different screen size, use the icons at the bottom of the customization menu to switch between device views. The default is desktop, with tablet in the middle and smart phone on the right. This is the easiest and quickest way to see the mobile version of your site as it’s within the WordPress dashboard and accessible in a couple of clicks However, this essentially just gives you the same view as you would get by resizing your browser window. It doesn’t replicate exactly how your website will display and behave on every mobile device. It also only allows you to view your site at three different screen widths. Mobile devices come with many different screen sizes and resolutions. As the original proposal for the feature by the WordPress core development team states, “Only three options are available by default, and they’re intentionally ambiguous. Rather than looking like specific devices, the intent is to understand what a site may look like on a roughly tablet-sized, portrait-orientation device or a roughly phone-sized device.” Additionally, the WordPress customizer is only available for themes that support it. This means if you’re using a theme that doesn’t work with the customizer, you won’t be able to use this method to preview your site on mobile. Viewing Mobile Preview in WordPress Page Builders If you’re using a visual page builder like Divi, Elementor, Visual Composer, etc. most of them come with their own tools for previewing the mobile version of your site and seeing how the responsive design looks at different screen sizes. Refer to

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5 Top Tools to Help You Manage Multiple Sites from Single Dashboard

[ad_1] It’s normal to run multiple WordPress websites as a modern site owner. The best place for visibility is on the internet, which means each business or blog will often have its own site. Though, running all of these sites could be a hassle and an administrative nightmare. As such, you’ll need a tool to manage multiple sites from a central location. The great news is that there are lots of services to make running multiple WordPress websites a breeze. The time you save can go back into running your business, rather than your site – and you could save some money too. In this post, we’ll look at a few solutions to help you manage multiple sites from a central WordPress dashboard. By the end, you’ll be able to find a service that fits your needs and say “Goodbye” to your old method of multiple site management. 5 Top Tools to Help You Manage Multiple Sites from Single Dashboard We’re going to look at five different ways to manage multiple sites from one dashboard. While some integrate with the WordPress dashboard, others have a custom solution. Here’s the list we’ll look at: MainWP. This runs from WordPress, and balances budget, functionality, and complexity within its features and functionality. ManageWP. The tool is a mainstay of WordPress site management, and comes with a unique pricing model. InfiniteWP. While the free tier is light on features, the premium solution will appeal to developers. Glow. This newcomer is going to become a front-runner for managing multiple sites, given its feature set and price. WP Remote. If you have the budget, and run a lot of sites, WP Remote could fit the bill. The list isn’t in any order, so feel free to jump around to look at a tool that appeals to you. Though, we recommend reading the whole list at some point, if only to compare your chosen solution to the rest. 1. MainWP First up, MainWP is a free, open-source tool for WordPress websites, with a lot of powerful features in the box. It offers great flexibility when looking to manage multiple sites and keep them secure. The MainWP dashboard features an intuitive interface that takes the hassle out of managing plugins, themes, and other aspects of your site. For example, it checks the update status of your themes and plugin, and sends you a summary notification. Though, it can do more than notify you of updates. MainWP’s one-click access to your network of sites makes it a breeze to administrate sites. A big time-saver is that you don’t have to type in individual URLs. Instead, there’s a direct link to each admin panel, which means you’re in an instant position to start managing the site. Once you’ve configured each site’s login credentials from the dashboard, you won’t need to remember them. On the whole, MainWP offers a stellar experience for WordPress users who want to manage multiple sites. What’s more, you can extend the platform using a number of free and premium extensions. Pricing MainWP’s core services are available on a free tier for unlimited sites. Though, there’s also MainWP Pro – a premium version (around $20 per month) that includes a number of otherwise inaccessible extensions. This includes functionality such as Wordfence and Yoast SEO integration, staging functionality, and advanced reporting. 💲Don’t forget to use our MainWP Coupon to get 15% OFF. 2. ManageWP Our next tool to manage multiple sites is ManageWP – one of the popular and best services for the task. It lets you access all of your sites through a single dashboard, and makes carrying out site admin a straightforward process. As you’d expect, the service is a snap to use. You’re able to perform almost all common routine tasks for your site through ManageWP. For example, you’re able to carry out basic updates to plugins and themes. Though, you can also add content to a site, create backups, and even start a new WordPress site. No matter what the task is, ManageWP features an intuitive, user-focused interface. It lets you jump in and begin regardless of your technical expertise. In addition, ManageWP offers premium-quality customer support. It’s available 24/7, highly knowledgeable, and on hand to help you solve any issues. Pricing The pricing model for ManageWP is unique. While, it offers core features for free, the service takes a modular approach. In other words, you can upgrade your experience on a per-extension basis. For example, you’re able to white-label your site, add backup functionality, and more, all for $1–2 per site, per month. This keeps the cost down for a handful of sites, but could see prices scale. Though, ManageWP also offers bundles of add-ons and extensions to help keep costs down for large-scale management projects. 3. InfiniteWP Next, InfiniteWP is a powerful tool to help you manage multiple sites without wasting time, effort, and money. You can manage all of your sites from a single intuitive and powerful admin panel, without the need to remember your admin credentials. Because it focuses on agencies, developers, and freelancers, it’s almost unique in the niche. InfiniteWP offers a global overview of your sites from a centralized admin panel. Its one-click update feature makes it easy to update site elements across your entire network of websites. What’s more, it includes a free backup and restore service – something not all solutions offer. Compared to the competition, InfiniteWP is light on core features. In fact, the free edition gives you little more than one-click admin access and updates. This isn’t enough to compete with other free solutions, although the premium upgrade is great quality. Pricing At the base level, you’re able to install InfiniteWP for free. Though, as we said, this only gives you one-click admin access, one-click updates, and backup functionality. If you decide to upgrade, you unlock more of InfiniteWP’s features. There are a number of premium features to choose from, including a lot of reporting and monitoring tools. One feature we like for developers is the

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InstaWP Launches New Service for Disposable WordPress Testing Sites – WP Tavern

[ad_1] Competition in the sandboxing products space is heating with the entrance of InstaWP, a new service for setting up disposable WordPress testing sites. Founder Vikas Singhal created the tool to provide a quick way to set up live testing sites online or to show something to a client or team. InstaWP joins the ranks of services like TasteWP and WPSandbox but with a few unique options. At setup, users can select from WordPress versions back to 4.7 and may even choose to spin up a site using the latest beta or release candidate. Like other services, InstaWP allows you to choose your PHP version. The ability to disable WP cache and browser cache is coming soon. Users can create a custom name for their sites or leave it blank for a randomly generated name. Free WordPress instances stay live for 8 hours, and users can link their accounts via email to extend it to 48 hours. InstaWP, not to be confused with InstantWP, a local WordPress installation tool, was built on an nginx + Apache server without any containers. Singhal said he found containers to be too heavy for this particular use case. He runs a WordPress plugin/theme shop along with an agency on the side, both of which could benefit from InstaWP’s quick testing sites. “I wanted to build a solution for ourselves where we can quickly launch WP instances for a variety of reasons – testing a feature of WP, testing a plugin/theme, testing in different versions of WP/PHP and last but not the least – creating an ‘instant’ test environment for the clients for them to test our plugins/themes,” he said. Singhal started InstaWP a month ago and received so much positive feedback on Reddit and from the Post Status community that he hired two dedicated developers to work on the project. Testers have commented on how fast the service spins up sites. Version 1.1.0 introduced Slack integration, which allows users to instantly set up a site by typing /wp in Slack. The release also added WordPress admin auto login for quick access without username and password. InstaWP has a public road map. Features on deck for future releases include the following: Slack and cli commands Download Files and DB Backup from the UI Direct push to FTP or cPanel nginx and nginx + Apache configurations Finer controls on PHP settings Save configurations for instant launch of pre-configured WP Integrations with hosting providers Map custom domains Multiple servers around the world (USA, Singapore, London, etc.) Singhal said he was aware of TasteWP as a competitor but plans to differentiate InstaWP based on simplicity and feature set. “My vision with InstaWP is make it a default tool for WP learners, enthusiasts, freelancers, and agencies – basically everyone,” he said. Singhal plans to monetize the tool for both end-users and plugin and theme authors. Users will have to upgrade to gain access to increased limits, custom domains, FTP access, and the ability to reserve a site. WordPress product authors can upgrade to provide 1-click demos to their clients and prospective customers. Singhal said so far more than 500 instances have been created and teams from Yoast and some agencies are already using the tool. Several prominent WordPress businesses have requested agency pricing that would allow their users to test their plugins via a 1-click preconfigured install. The service is still under active development and Singhal plans to iron out pricing in the near future. Testers who have suggestions for InstaWP can log them on the tool’s idea board for future consideration. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link

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