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Converting my old JoeTourist website to be Mobile-ready

My JoeTourist website has been online for many, many years. I originally hosted the website on my own server, but a few years ago moved to a hosting service. I previously used Microsoft’s FrontPage web authoring desktop software for all these years. It has been like an old friend: familiar and easy.

But times change. Over half the people browsing my website now use mobile devices, and the old design just isn’t very friendly to small screens. Cellphone browsers in particular must scroll left and right to see the whole page, and must put up with links and buttons that were designed for mouse clicking, not finger poking!

The final straw came in an email I received from Google a few days ago: “Google Search will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal.” I depend on Google to direct people to my website. My website has enjoyed a solid Page Rank 4 for many years, so I knew it was time to update my website’s content management system. I’m facing a massive job of converting several hundred pages, thousands of photos, and other media to a new system.

Well, there is no time like the present to get started on this task! Over the next few days I will add my last trips to Europe, Oman and the United Arab Emirates to this new website using WordPress, the most popular and best supported web content authoring system. Other destinations will follow until I convert at least the last ten year’s worth of my travelogues.

Check Destinations for a list of the web content converted to the new format and website.

The archive of my old website will continue to live on for awhile during the conversion process. Update: the archive site is now offline, since I’ve made good progress with the conversion.


Google’s Search Update Will Remake the Web in Its Own Image – Wired.com