The simple answer to this question in the year 2016, is a resounding YES, and you had better make sure your theme is responsive. From Wikipedia:
Responsive web design has become more important as the amount of mobile traffic now accounts for more than half of total internet traffic. Therefore, Google announced Mobilegeddon (April 21, 2015) and started to boost the ratings of sites that are mobile friendly if the search was made from a mobile device.
How can one tell if they have a responsive theme or not? On a desktop, grab the corner of your browser window and decrease the size of the browser window by dragging it towards the center of your screen. If text or images get cut off, then your theme is not responsive. On a mobile device, if you have to expand or enlarge the screen to read the text or see the images, then the website you are looking at is not responsive.
There are many responsive themes available for your self-hosted WordPress website and selecting a good responsive theme can be a bit overwhelming for the new website developer.
After over 8 years of playing around with themes, I have chosen iThemes Builder as my go-to responsive theme. iThemes Builder is being used on over 19,000 websites. With iThemes Builder you can:
- make custom layouts for your pages/posts (and give them unique sidebars)
- make your site look good on all devices (responsive)
- integrate with an e-commerce plugin (I will cover this in my Level 3 e-course)
- add a sitewide footer to every page
- integrate with Google Analytics
- widgetize any part of your page layout
- easily add a favicon
- and much, much more
When you purchase iThemes Builder’s Foundation pack, you receive the Air child theme along with some other iThemes Builder child themes. The Air child theme is a great starter theme and can be completely customized using the built-in layout editor and custom CSS styles. However, you can choose any iThemes Builder child theme to get started because they are all fully customizable.
Also, when you purchase any product from iThemes, you get great email support as long as your license is active, usually for a year. Just login to your member panel here: https://members.ithemes.com/panel/ and visit the help desk here: https://members.ithemes.com/panel/helpdesk.php.
iThemes support actively responds to support requests (typically within one business day) during normal business hours, Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm (CST).
Visit my post for a tutorial video on how to install iThemes Builder Air.
This tutorial is part of a series of e-courses created by Cat Scholz to empower you with using the self-hosted version of WordPress to achieve your internet marketing goals. Get more information and/or sign up:
Checkout Level 1 (free)
Checkout Level 2 (on sale)
Checkout Level 3 (on sale)