Many of your customers will first meet your business on a phone. They might be searching from a car, a couch or a job site. If your website is awkward on a small screen, they will not zoom in and squint. They will leave.
"Mobile friendly" is one of those phrases that gets thrown around without anyone saying what it means. So here is what it actually looks like, and a quick test.
What mobile friendly really means
A mobile friendly website does these things without fuss:
- Text is readable without pinching or zooming in.
- The page fits the screen, with no sideways scrolling.
- Buttons and links are big enough to tap and not packed so tightly you hit the wrong one.
- The phone number is tappable, so one touch starts the call.
- Pages open at a reasonable speed, even on mobile data.
- Menus work with a thumb, not a mouse.
- Nothing important is hidden or cut off, such as your contact details or prices.
It is not about a special "mobile version" you maintain separately. Today a good site simply adjusts itself to whatever screen it is shown on.
The five minute test
Use your own phone, ideally with wifi turned off so you see what a customer on mobile data sees. Have a look at it as if you have never seen it before.
- Open your homepage and do not touch anything. Can you tell within a few seconds what you do and where? If you have to scroll or zoom to find out, that is a problem. See what to put on your homepage for what should be up the top.
- Check the text. Can you read it at normal size? Hold the phone at arm's length like you would on the go.
- Scroll all the way down. Does anything slide sideways, overlap, or get cut off at the edge?
- Tap your phone number. Does your phone offer to call? If it does not, ask whoever looks after your site to fix it.
- Try to contact yourself. Use the form or booking link as a customer would, and send it. Did it arrive? Our ten minute self check covers this and more.
Then open two more pages, such as a services page and your contact page, and repeat the quick look. Sometimes the homepage works and an inner page does not.
Common problems and what they mean
- Tiny text and a squashed desktop layout: the site was built for a big screen and never adjusted. This is the clearest sign of an old site.
- Menu that will not open or covers the page: a fixable fault, but test it on a real phone, not only a computer.
- Pop ups that cover the whole screen: annoying on a computer and worse on a phone. Customers often cannot find the close button.
- Slow loading: a very common issue, usually caused by big photos or too many add ons. See why is my website slow.
- Phone number as plain text: easy to fix, and one of the most useful fixes.
Why it matters for Google as well
Google looks at the mobile version of your site when it decides where to rank it. A site that is slow, cramped or broken on a phone counts against you. We explain this in why your website is not showing up on Google. Nobody can promise you a position, but a site that works well on a phone removes one obvious problem.
Test it on more than one phone
If you can, ask a friend or family member to open your site on their phone too. An iPhone and an Android can show different things, and an older or smaller phone will show you problems a new one hides.
What to do with what you find
Write down each problem as you see it, in plain words: "menu will not open", "text too small on the services page". A short list like that makes it easy to fix yourself or to pass to whoever manages your site. If most things on the list are about the layout rather than small details, it may be a sign the site is due for a refresh or rebuild.
You do not need to pay anyone to run this test, and it costs nothing. If you would like a second set of eyes on what you find, tell us about your business for a free 15 minute call.