WordPress Website vs WordPress Mobile App: The Differences to Take Care

If you have a WordPress website which is pretty mobile optimized, you might have considered creating a mobile app for the same is not a very urgent necessity. Yes, mobile browsing is the mainstream of web browsing now, and a mobile optimized site is the need of the hour for any web venture. But when you compare native apps for WordPress websites, you are bound to consider the vast scope of audience engagement it creates. This is precisely why a lot of mobile optimized or responsive WordPress websites are now inclined to come with their mobile app.
 
What typical advantages a native WordPress app can offer? There are many, and a lot of them are already well known. But different types of WordPress websites when converted to WordPress mobile apps garner different advantages.

• If you have a travel website that allows booking tickets and passes, a native app just can let you offer your features ready in hand on the device screen.
• For any e-commerce website, having native app has valuable benefits since you can allow your audience to transact and browse even more with an always accessible app.
• Millions prefer WordPress for blogging, and many of these blogs enjoy loyal audience for their regularly updates posts. Popular blogs and web magazines can allow their audience to stay up-to-date and connected all the time through a native app.
• Typical B2C or B2B websites with niche customers and user base also can find WordPress native app tremendously useful as it can allow their loyal or frequent users to stay connected right from the handheld devices.

Finally, the most important thing is, converting a WordPress website to the native app does not require building it from scratch. Several high-quality conversion tools can allow you doing that with value additions of all types including new look and feel, features and more mobile-friendly user experience. To make things more encouraging, there is an array of WordPress mobile plugins that just allow the same versatility, flexibility and power WordPress websites are well known for decades.
 
But when you switch your WordPress website to a native app experience, you need to remember a few differences in terms of design and overall user experience. Let us explain them in brief.

Fresh new native design with consistent brand elements
 
When converting your WordPress website to the native app, it cannot have the same look and feel. Native app look differs from a website on several aspects including the menu button, navigation, simpler homepage, short and crisp landing page, etc. But in spite of these differences, you need to ensure the brand elements to be consistent. It should instantly inform users about the business brand and brand message. What are the key brand elements that both the website and native app should carry along? Here we mention a few of them.
 

• The brand-specific color scheme should be consistent in both.
• The app logo must be in sync with the business logo, preferably the same.
• From layout to typeface to CTA to landing page, every element in spite of the native app look and feel should allow consistency in overall look and feel.

Great onboarding experience
 
You have converted the new app for your WordPress site successfully and published it on the app marketplace. Now, do the users feel a positive difference? Can they instantly engage with the new app in the same way they used to feel secure with your WordPress website? If not, you need to reconsider shaping your app’s onboarding experience. By offering a layer of onboarding guide or tour to the entire app, you explain the things that make your WordPress app different from a mobile website.
 

• Consider educating your new users with an interface tour.
• Consider giving your users an onboarding tour based on benthefits. With such onboarding experience, always explain the benefits in brief for every distinct feature.
• You can also allow them to know about the new app as ey progress with contextual pop-up messages. Always explain the next step in brief.

From clutter to clarity
 
You have already heard about this journey from clutter to clarity. You know how it helps in mobile reading and boosting user engagement. In fact, every website tries to do the same these days. But when converting your WordPress site to a native app, once again you need to refine a few things to ensure optimum clarity. Typically, app users are an already over-sensitive, impatient and merciless lot. So, if your WordPress blog does not help quick reading with the new app, users may finally stop using it.
 

• To help mobile reading more ensure quick to read, at a glance reading format of contents. Use shorter paragraphs, separate sections, bullet points and appropriate heads and subheads.
• For a blog app, it is wise to offer small snippets with the main points or summary when listing the blog titles on a page.
• Choose fonts wisely that adds ease to the reading experience while keeping the brand message. Fonts should drive user attention to the content, not to the font itself.
• Use a white space around images and contents to ensure grabbing attention easily.

Make it more actionable
 
Why have you decided to come with a new WordPress app while your website was just doing fine? It is precisely because of engaging a mobile audience and giving your loyal audience better scope to stay engaged, right? To be more precise, you expect your new WordPress mobile app to deliver more business conversion. But, without users taking actions while using the app, you cannot expect business to happen. How to boost user activities on the app to drive business conversion? Consider these tips.
 

• Place all the actionable links and phone numbers above the fold in prominent areas.
• Use CTA buttons appropriately sized for easy finger tapping.
• Use appropriate colors to make the right contrast for CTA.
• For every progressive action guide the users with a next step hint.
• Notify users with messages about their unfinished actions in the app.
• Use deep linking of other contents contextually to boost action and engagement.

The above considerations seem to be more important for WordPress apps than their mobile friendly counterparts. Native apps demand to be more cozy, readily usable and actionable than a WordPress website built responsively.