Why mobile-friendliness isn't negotiable
Most of your visitors arrive on a phone, and Google judges your site on its mobile version first. Mobile support isn't an extra any more — it's the baseline.
"It looks good on desktop, it's a bit broken on mobile but never mind." That sentence was acceptable ten years ago. Today it means turning most of your visitors away at the door.
Google looks at the phone first
Google has for years evaluated your site using its mobile version first. So even if your desktop version is flawless, it's the phone version that decides your ranking.
A site that loads slowly on a phone, leaves text too small, or has buttons that can't be pressed will slip in search no matter how good it looks on desktop.
Users don't give a second chance
A visitor who has a bad experience on their phone doesn't think "I'll check it on the computer later." They press back and move to the next result.
What to check
Open your own site on your phone and look for:
- Horizontal scrolling. If the page slides left and right, something is overflowing the screen. This is the most common and most irritating fault.
- Readable text without zooming. Body text under 16 pixels tires the eye on a phone.
- Buttons you can press with a thumb. Touch targets should be at least 44×44 pixels. Two small links side by side mean mis-taps.
- A menu that opens. If the background scrolls when the hamburger menu is open, or there's no close button, the user gets stuck.
- Forms you can fill in. Does the phone field bring up a numeric keyboard? Is "@" easy to reach in the email field?
"Mobile-friendly" versus "designed for mobile"
Most themes are technically mobile-friendly — meaning they fit the screen. But fitting isn't enough.
On a page designed for desktop and then squeezed down, a phone user scrolls past three screens of decorative imagery before reaching the actual content. On a page designed mobile-first, the most important thing sits at the top.
A simple test
Hand your phone to someone who doesn't know your site and ask, "how would you get in touch with us from here?" If they can't find it in ten seconds, the problem is the mobile design.
- #mobile
- #responsive
- #usability
