Mobile-friendly websites and Google

Google now looks at the phone version of your website when it decides what your pages say and who they are for. If your site shows less on a phone than on a computer, or is hard to use with a thumb, Google sees the weaker version. The fix is rarely a mystery: the same text, photos and contact details on every screen, in a layout that fits a phone without pinching or zooming.

What "mobile-first indexing" actually means

Google keeps a copy of every page it knows about. That copy is called the index, and it is what Google searches when someone types a question. For years Google made that copy using a desktop computer's view of the page. Today it uses a phone's view.

So the question Google asks about your site is no longer "what does this look like on a big screen?" It is "what does a person on a phone get?" For most small-business sites built in the last few years, both versions show the same thing and nothing changes. The trouble starts with older sites that had a separate, cut-down phone version, or that hide whole sections on small screens to save space.

Two things follow from this:

What is missing on the phone is missing for Google. If your service list, your town names or your opening hours only appear on the desktop layout, Google may never read them.
A site that is awkward on a phone loses the visitor even when Google sends them. Tiny text, buttons too close together and a menu that will not open send people back to the search results to try the next business.

The signs your site is not mobile-friendly

You do not need a tool for the first check. Pick up your own phone, turn off Wi-Fi so you are on a normal mobile connection, and open your site the way a customer would: search for your business name and tap the result.

Look for these problems:

You have to pinch or zoom to read the text. The page was laid out for a wide screen and is simply being shrunk.
The page scrolls sideways. Something is wider than the screen, often a photo, a table or an old embedded map.
Your phone number is plain text. On a phone it should be a link that starts a call when tapped.
The menu does not open, or opens behind something else. Tap it, then tap every item in it.
Buttons are so close you hit the wrong one. If your thumb keeps catching the neighbor, so does your customer's.
A pop-up covers the page and the close button is off the screen or too small to hit.
Words or sections disappear. Compare a page on your phone with the same page on a computer. If whole parts are missing, that is the "cut-down" problem above.

If two or more of these are true, the site was most likely built before phones were the main way people browse. Why an old website looks bad on phones explains the usual causes and the choices you have.

How to check it with Google's own tools

Google used to offer a single "Mobile-Friendly Test" page. It has been retired, along with the matching report in Search Console, so do not trust an email that asks you to log in to it. The checks that remain are still useful.

PageSpeed Insights. Go to pagespeed.web.dev, paste your home page address and run it. Look at the "Mobile" tab, which is the default. The speed score matters, but for this question read the lower sections, especially "Accessibility" and "Best Practices". They flag text that is too small, tap targets that are too close and images without sizes. How to test your website speed for free walks through the report.

Search Console. If you have it set up, the "Pages" report shows which pages Google has stored, and the URL Inspection tool lets you see a page the way Google's phone crawler fetched it. If the screenshot there is broken or blank, Google is struggling with your phone version.

Your browser on a computer. In Chrome, right-click a page, choose "Inspect", then click the small phone-and-tablet icon at the top of the panel. You can pick a phone model and see the page at that size. It is a quick way to check several pages without your phone in hand.

What to fix first

Not every problem is equal. Start with the things that cost you a call.

Make the phone number tappable on every page, near the top. Many builders have a "phone" or "click to call" button setting. On older sites the number needs to be written as a phone link. Click-to-call buttons covers how.
Put the same words on the phone version. If your builder lets you hide sections on mobile, look for those switches and turn them off for anything that matters: services, areas you cover, hours, reviews.
Fix sideways scrolling. It is usually one oversized item. Remove or resize it.
Make text readable without zoom. Body text should be comfortable at arm's length. If you squint, your customers over 55 will leave.
Space out buttons and links so each one is easy to hit with a thumb.
Shrink heavy photos. A photo straight off a camera can be many megabytes and will load slowly on a phone signal.

What mobile-friendly does not do

Being mobile-friendly does not move you ahead of other businesses on its own. Nobody can promise a ranking, and a site that works on phones is the baseline Google expects, not a reward. What it does do is remove a reason for Google to read less of your site, and remove the reason a visitor gives up on you after Google sent them.

It also does not require a separate "mobile site". Those old separate versions, often on an address starting with "m.", are now more trouble than help, because they drift out of step with the main site. Modern sites use one set of pages that rearrange themselves to fit the screen. That is called responsive design, and it is what Google recommends.

When fixing is no longer worth it

Some sites can be patched: a few settings in the builder, one resized photo, a tappable number. Others were built on a theme or tool that predates phones, and every fix uncovers two more. Signs you are in the second group: the builder no longer gets updates, the person who built it is gone, or the layout is made of fixed-width tables.

In that case a rebuild is usually cheaper than a string of repairs, as long as the new site keeps your old page addresses so the place your pages have earned in Google is protected. Redesigning without losing customers from Google covers that part.

What to do this week

Open your home page, your main service page and your contact page on your own phone, on mobile data.
Tap your phone number. If no call starts, that is the first fix.
Compare each page with the computer version and list anything missing on the phone.
Run your home page through PageSpeed Insights and read the mobile Accessibility section.
Ask one person outside the business to find your number and service area on your site, and watch.

If your current site fails most of these checks, you can see your site rebuilt first, working on phones, with your own words and photos, before you decide anything.