How to make your website mobile friendly
Most visitors to a small business website arrive on a phone, and Google ranks sites based on their mobile version. If your site is fiddly on a phone, you lose both rankings and customers. Most fixes are quick.
Last updated · By the XKey team
Why does mobile matter for SEO?
Google uses mobile-first indexing: it crawls and ranks your site based on what a phone sees. Text, links or structured data that only appear on the desktop version may not count. And people searching on a phone leave quickly if a page is slow or hard to use, which costs you the enquiry even if you rank.
What makes a website mobile friendly?
- A viewport tag –
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">– so the page fits the screen. Don't block pinch-zoom. - Readable text without zooming: roughly 16px for body text.
- Big tap targets: buttons and links at least about 44px high with space between them.
- No sideways scrolling: images, tables and embeds that fit the screen.
- Tap-to-call and tap-to-email links so customers can contact you in one tap.
- No pop-ups covering the content as soon as the page opens.
- Fast loading on mobile data. See Core Web Vitals and image SEO.
How do I test my site on mobile?
- Open it on your own phone and try to do what a customer would: find a price, call you, fill in the form.
- Run a free SEO check: it tests the viewport, tap-to-contact links, image sizes and speed signals.
- In Chrome on a computer, right-click → Inspect, then click the phone icon to preview different screens.
- Check the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console for real-visitor data.
How do I fix an old site that isn't mobile friendly?
If your site was built before about 2015 and has no mobile layout, patching it is rarely worth it: move to a responsive theme or a modern builder, keeping the same page addresses or adding 301 redirects. Read website redesign SEO first.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google still have a mobile-friendly test?
Google retired its standalone Mobile-Friendly Test in 2023. Use Lighthouse in Chrome, Search Console's Core Web Vitals report and our SEO check instead.
Should my mobile site have less content?
No. Keep the same main content on mobile and desktop; you can tidy it with menus and expandable sections.
Do I need a separate mobile website?
No. A responsive design that adapts to the screen is simpler and what Google recommends.
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