If you’ve been wondering about mobile friendly website, here’s the plain-English version for Salem-area owners. By Melody Campbell, The Small Business Guru
Picture a Salem homeowner standing in a driveway with a dripping water heater. She grabs her phone, finds your website, and has to pinch and zoom to read your phone number. The page takes a long time to load, so she gives up and tries someone else. You never knew she was there.
Most people searching for a local business are holding a phone, so your website has to work in their hand, not just on your office computer. The good news is that you can test it yourself in about five minutes, and you don’t need to be technical. In this post I’ll show you what to check, what the results mean, and what to do about it.
In a nutshell
- Open your site on your own phone and try to do what a customer would do: read, tap to call, fill out a form.
- Write down everything that annoys you. That is what your customers feel, too.
- Many problems are small, inexpensive fixes and don’t require a full rebuild.
- Test again every few months, because phones, plugins, and your own edits can change things.
Why does mobile matter so much for a local business?
People looking for a plumber, a landscaper, or a lash artist are often in a hurry and often on a phone. They may be in the car, on a job site, or on the couch at night. They want to see if you serve their area, find out whether you look trustworthy, and reach you quickly.
A frustrated visitor won’t tell you the site is hard to use. They’ll just leave. That makes mobile problems quiet and expensive, because you lose the call and never find out why.
There is a search side to this as well. Search tools want to send people to pages that work well for them, so a site that is awkward on a phone may be a weaker choice. I can’t promise exactly how it affects ranking, but I do know it affects whether a visitor stays.
What is the five-minute phone test?
Grab your phone, ideally using mobile data instead of your home wifi, since that is closer to what a customer experiences. Search for your business the way a stranger would, tap your website, and work through this list:
- Can you read the text without zooming? If you have to pinch the screen, the text or layout isn’t set up for phones.
- Can you tap the phone number to call? It should dial with one tap, and it should be easy to find without scrolling.
- Do the buttons work with a thumb? Buttons and links that are tiny or crowded together are frustrating.
- Does the quote or booking form work? Actually fill it out and send a test. Make sure it arrives where you expect.
- Does it load quickly? If you’re staring at a blank screen, count how long it takes. Slow pages lose people.
- Do the pictures fit the screen? Images shouldn’t spill off the side or push the text around.
- Can you find your services and your service area? A visitor should find these in a couple of taps.
What if my site fails the test?
First, don’t panic. Make a short list of what bothered you. That list is exactly what a customer feels, and it gives you a clear starting point.
Then sort the list into three piles:
- Quick fixes you can do yourself. Making the phone number tappable, shrinking oversized photos, and trimming a cluttered menu are often easy.
- Fixes for your web person. Form problems, slow loading from heavy plugins, and layout issues usually need someone with access to the back end.
- Bigger questions. If the whole design fights you on a phone, it may be time for a refresh. Fixing things is often simpler than a full rebuild, so don’t assume you need to start over.
If you do need help, see our website development approach to understand how we build and repair sites with phones in mind.
What do customers on phones actually need from my page?
Think about the person standing in a driveway or sitting in a waiting room. They need a short list of things, quickly:
- What you do and where you do it.
- A way to reach you right now, by call, text, or a short form.
- A reason to trust you, like a few real reviews and photos of your work.
- Hours and what to expect next.
I go deeper on this in what every local website should make clear. A beautiful design that hides your phone number is worse than a plain page with a big, tappable button.
For a beauty business, think about booking. If a client has to leave your site, hunt for a link, and log in somewhere else just to reserve a lash fill, some won’t finish. Test your booking path on a phone from start to end, as if you were a new client.
How do I check the rest of my online presence on mobile?
Your website is only one of the places customers see you on their phones. Look at your Google Business Profile on your phone too. Is the call button right? Are your hours correct? Do the photos look current? Does the website button open the page you want people to see?
It also helps to notice the order of things. If customers find you on Google first, then tap your site, then try to call, any broken step costs you the customer. Walking through that whole path once will show you what they see.
What to do this week
- Pick a time this weekend and run the five-minute phone test on your own phone.
- Ask a friend or family member with a different phone to repeat it and tell you what confused them.
- Send yourself a test through your quote or booking form and confirm it arrives.
- Write down your top three annoyances, then fix the easiest one first.
- Check your Google Business Profile on your phone for wrong hours or broken buttons.
- Put a reminder on your calendar to repeat the test every few months.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a new website if it fails the phone test?
Often not. Many issues, like a hard-to-tap number or oversized images, can be fixed without a rebuild. A new site makes sense when the whole layout works against phones and patching it would cost more than starting fresh.
How often should I test my website on a phone?
Every few months, and any time you or your web person change the site or add a plugin. Updates can quietly break things like forms and buttons.
Should I test on both iPhone and Android?
If you can, yes. Ask a friend to try on the other kind of phone. Things sometimes look slightly different, and you’ll catch more problems.
Is a slow site really that big a deal?
In my experience, yes. People searching for a local service are often in a hurry and will move on to the next result. I can’t tell you exactly how many you’d lose, but speed is worth checking.
Related reading: fixing a “Not Secure” website
I’m Melody Campbell, The Small Business Guru, and I help business owners in Salem, Keizer, and the Willamette Valley get found, get trusted, and get chosen.
Get Found. Get Trusted. Get Chosen.