How to check if your website works on phones (and what to fix first)

Google's Mobile-Friendly Test doesn't exist anymore

A lot of advice online still tells you to paste your address into Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. Google retired that tool, the API behind it and the Mobile Usability report in Search Console starting December 1, 2023. The old address now takes you to the page for Lighthouse, a free testing tool that's built into Chrome.

Google said retiring the tool didn't make mobile less important, and named Lighthouse as one of the tools that had come along since. Google also indexes and ranks your site using the mobile version of your pages, as its smartphone crawler sees them. That's the version your phone visitors get too.

Lighthouse has changed too. Version 13 removed its check for small font sizes, so a good score won't tell you whether a customer can read your service list. You find that out by looking at the site on a real phone.

The 5-minute mobile friendly test on your own phone

Use your phone on cellular data, not the office Wi-Fi. Act like a customer with a problem who wants someone on the phone now.

1. Search Google for your business name and tap the link to your website. Then tap the Website button on your Google Business Profile. If either one shows an error or a "domain for sale" page, stop. That's your first fix.
2. Look at the first screen before you scroll. You should see what you do, where you work, and a phone number or call button. If it looks like a tiny copy of the desktop site, the viewport tag is probably missing.
3. Scroll the whole page with your thumb. You shouldn't have to scroll sideways. Text and photos should stay inside the screen.
4. Read one paragraph without zooming. If you have to pinch to read your service list, your customers do too.
5. Tap your phone number. The dialer should open with your number in it. If nothing happens, the number isn't a link.
6. Tap each button and open the menu. Check that you hit what you aimed for, and that the menu opens and closes.
7. Send yourself a message through your contact or quote form. Then check that it lands in your inbox.
8. Watch for anything covering the page. A pop-up, chat window or banner shouldn't hide your content or your call button.

Write down each step that failed. You'll need the list later.

View your site on mobile from your computer

Your phone shows you one screen size. Chrome can show you a lot of them, and PageSpeed Insights can measure speed. Both are free.

1. Open your site in Chrome on a computer.
2. Press F12 on Windows or Command+Option+I on a Mac to open DevTools.
3. Press Control+Shift+M on Windows or Command+Shift+M on a Mac to turn on device mode. You can also click the Toggle device toolbar button.
4. Pick a phone from the Dimensions menu at the top, then scroll through your site like you did on your phone.
5. Go to PageSpeed Insights, paste your address and look at the Mobile results.

Device mode only gives you an approximation. Chrome's own documentation says it's still best to test on a real mobile device. It's handy for checking screen sizes you don't own, after you've done the phone test.

PageSpeed Insights shows two kinds of numbers. The top part is data from real Chrome users over the last 28 days, if your site has enough visits to be included. If it doesn't, that part stays empty. Below that is a simulated test run by Lighthouse. Google calls the real-visitor numbers good when the largest content loads within 2.5 seconds. The page should also respond to a tap within 200 milliseconds and keep its layout shift score at 0.1 or less.

What we found on trade business websites

In our research on 1,000 trade business websites (September 2026), about 1 in 5 of the listed website addresses we could check led nowhere useful. Some domains no longer worked at all, some showed an error page, and some were parked or for sale.

Of the 719 sites that loaded normally, 10.2% had no mobile viewport tag. That one line of code tells a phone to fit the page to its screen. Without it, a phone can lay the page out at desktop width and then shrink it to fit. That's the "tiny desktop site" from step 2.

The research has limits. We only checked homepages, and we didn't run JavaScript. So a missing viewport tag is a strong warning sign, but it doesn't prove a whole site fails on phones. The listed address can also be out of date. That's still a problem, because it's the link customers tap. The full numbers are in our State of American Trades Websites report.

What to fix first

Put the problems from your test in this order. Anything that stops a customer from calling you goes near the top.

A dead link or a shrunken page loses people before they read a word. A number they can't tap adds a step right when they want to call. Speed matters too, but a fast page with no easy way to call won't bring in jobs.

Google's advice on pop-ups is plain: don't cover the whole page, and use a banner that takes up a small part of the screen. Pop-ups that are legally required, like an age gate, are an exception.

To see the first fixes in place, open our sample plumbing site on your phone. It fits the screen, and the phone number is a tap-to-call link.

What matters less than you'd think

• A perfect PageSpeed score. You don't need 100. Fix the specific items that slow down your first screen, then move on.
• A separate mobile site or an app. Google recommends responsive design, meaning one site that adjusts to any screen, and calls it the easiest to set up and maintain.
• Matching the desktop layout exactly. On a phone, columns can stack and the menu can fold into a button. Keep the content itself the same, though. Google wants your mobile pages to have the same content as desktop so you keep ranking for the same searches.
• Sliders and animations. If they slow down the first screen or push your phone number down, take them out.
• Testing on every phone model. One iPhone, one Android and Chrome's device mode is usually enough for a small service site.

What to send whoever manages your site

If someone else built or hosts your site, you don't have to fix any of this yourself. Send them:

• Screenshots from your phone of each step that failed.
• Your PageSpeed Insights results for the homepage, Mobile tab.
• The fixes in the order from the table, starting with the viewport tag and the tap-to-call number.

When they say it's done, run the 5-minute test again on your own phone. If the fixes add up to a rebuild, the website cost calculator gives you a rough budget before you ask for quotes.