The short version
Open your own website on your phone, the way a customer would. Check you can see what you do without zooming, the phone number rings when tapped and the form works with your thumb. Send anything that doesn't work to your web person in one list.
Most of us look at our own websites on a laptop, if we look at them at all. Many customers, though, will meet your website for the first time on a phone, often while they're out, between jobs or on the sofa in the evening. A site that looks fine on a big screen can be hard work on a small one.
This check takes about five minutes, and you don't need any technical knowledge to do it.
How to check
Search for your business on your phone, the way a customer would, and open your website from the results. Then work through these.
- Can you see what you do and where, without zooming in? The top of the homepage should say it clearly.
- Can you read the text comfortably? If you're pinching to zoom, it's too small.
- Does the phone number ring when you tap it? It should open your phone's dialler.
- Can you fill in the contact form with your thumb? Check the boxes are big enough and the email box brings up a keyboard with an @ key.
- Do the menus open and close properly? Try every link in the menu.
- Do any pop-ups get in the way? A cookie banner or offer that covers the page and is hard to close will lose people.
- Are the buttons easy to tap? Booking, quote and contact buttons should be big enough not to need two goes.
- Does the site load reasonably quickly on mobile data? Turn off Wi-Fi and try it.
- Does the website link on your Google listing open the right page?
If you can, try it on a friend's phone as well, as different phones and browsers can show things slightly differently.
What to ask your web person
Write down anything that didn't work, with the page it was on, and send the list in one go. Ask them to fix the items and to check the site on a phone again afterwards.
What we do
Every site we build at Midlands Code Lab is checked on a phone before anyone else sees it.
Need a hand with how your site works on a phone? Get in touch and we'll take a look.
Get in touch