Website slow or hard to use on a phone? How to fix it

Many customers open your website on a phone. If the page is slow, they leave before it shows. If the text is tiny, they leave too. Test your site on a phone today, and fix the biggest problem first.

Ravi runs a sweet shop with a nice website. He always opens it on his office computer. It looks fine there.

His daughter opened it on her phone. She waited and waited. Then the page showed, tiny, like a shrunk computer screen. "Papa, nobody will read this," she said.

This is an example, with a made up name and business.

First, test it

1. Open your site on your phone. Use mobile data, not WiFi. Count the seconds until the first screen shows.
2. Run Google's speed test. Go to PageSpeed Insights (Google). Type your website address. Look at the result for Mobile.
3. Read it without zooming. Can you read the text? Do the buttons fit the screen? Can you tap one without hitting the next?

If it is slow

1. Make your photos smaller. A photo from a new phone is often far too big for a web page. Many builders can shrink photos when you upload them.
2. Remove what you do not need. A moving slideshow, a video that plays by itself, or a big pop up all slow the page.
3. Ask your web person to look at the speed test with you. It lists what slows the page down.

If it is hard to use on a phone

1. Open the mobile view in your website builder. Many builders have one. Fix what looks wrong there.
2. Make the text bigger and the buttons wider. One column is easier to read on a phone than three.
3. If your site is very old, a new simple page may be quicker than fixing it. See how to make a one page site.

Then test again on your phone. For more fixes, see five fixes for a website that loses customers.

My site looks fine on my computer. Is that enough?

No. A page can look fine on a computer and still be slow or tiny on a phone. Always check on a phone.

My Pulse results say my website needs work. Where do I start?

Look at the website part of your results. Under What to fix, start with the first item. Speed and the phone layout are often there.

Will a faster site bring more customers?

Nobody can promise that. But fewer people leave while they wait.