10 Website Errors That Show Up on Mobile but Not on Your Computer

You’re sitting at your desk, your website looks perfect on your monitor, and then you pull it up on your phone while you’re waiting for coffee, and… it’s not perfect anymore. A button’s in the wrong place. Text is running off the edge. A form looks like it was designed in 1997. Your heart sinks a little, because you already paid someone to build this thing.

That feeling of discovering your website works in one world but not another, it’s frustrating. And lonely, because it feels like it shouldn’t be happening. But I promise you, you’re not the only one experiencing this. A lot of business owners I talk to discover these mobile mishaps completely by accident, and then they feel embarrassed about it. Like they should have known.

Here’s the truth: mobile errors are incredibly common, and they’re not your fault. But they are your opportunity to make sure your website actually works for the people who are visiting it. Because more than half the people who land on your website are probably doing it on a phone, not a desktop computer. That’s not a guess. That’s just how people browse the internet now.

Let me walk you through the 10 most common mobile errors I see, why they happen, and what they mean for your website. This isn’t about blame. This is about seeing what’s not working so you can fix it.

The 10 Mobile Errors You Probably Don’t Know You Have

1. Your buttons are too small to tap

This one makes me crazy because it’s so easy to fix and so many websites get it wrong. On your desktop, a button looks perfectly sized. On mobile, it becomes a tiny target that requires the dexterity of a surgeon to click.

Mobile users have bigger fingers than your cursor. A button needs to be at least 44 pixels by 44 pixels to be tappable without frustration. If someone has to zoom in to click your button, or if they keep missing it and tapping the wrong thing, they’re going to leave your site.

The opportunity here is simple: make your call-to-action buttons bigger on mobile. Not huge, just tappable. It’s a small shift that makes a massive difference in whether someone can actually take the action you want them to take.

2. Your menu collapses into a hamburger icon that doesn’t work

You know that three-line menu icon (we call it a hamburger menu) that shows up on phones? It’s supposed to reveal your navigation when you tap it. But I see a lot of websites where that hamburger menu either doesn’t open, opens but the links don’t work, or opens but you can’t close it without leaving the page.

This usually happens because the menu was built for desktop first, and the mobile version was kind of an afterthought. The JavaScript that makes the menu work on mobile didn’t get tested properly.

Here’s the thing: if someone can’t navigate your website on their phone, they can’t find what they’re looking for. And they’ll leave. Your menu is how people explore your site, so making sure it actually works on mobile is non-negotiable.

3. Images are too big and take forever to load

You’ve got this beautiful, high-resolution hero image on your homepage. It looks stunning on your desktop. On mobile, that same image might be 10 times larger in file size than it needs to be, which means your page loads like molasses.

Here’s what happens: someone clicks a link to your site on their phone. They wait. And wait. The page is still loading. In the time it takes your page to load, they’ve already scrolled away and opened something else.

Mobile users are on different internet connections than people on desktop. They might be on 4G, or WiFi at a coffee shop, or a spotty signal while they’re between meetings. If your images aren’t optimized for mobile, you’re punishing them for visiting you.

The opportunity is to use tools that automatically serve smaller images to mobile devices. Your beautiful image still looks great, but it loads fast. Everyone wins.

4. Your text is too small to read without zooming

I test websites on phones all the time, and I still see body text that’s 12 pixels or smaller on mobile. That’s tiny. And yes, people can zoom in, but most people won’t. They’ll just leave.

Desktop text size and mobile text size need to be different. What looks right on a 27-inch monitor is unreadable on a 5-inch phone screen. Mobile text should be at least 16 pixels for body copy. Headlines can be a little smaller, but not much.

When your text is easy to read on mobile, people actually read your stuff. That’s the opportunity. Your words matter. Make them readable.

5. Your forms are wider than the screen

You’ve got a contact form or a signup form on your website. On desktop, it’s centered with plenty of breathing room. On mobile, the form is stretched wider than the screen, which means people have to scroll sideways to see all the fields. Some fields might be cut off entirely.

This usually happens when the form was built as a fixed width and never adapted to smaller screens. The form isn’t responsive, which means it’s not responding to the size of the device.

Here’s why this matters: if someone can’t see a form field, they can’t fill it in. If the experience is annoying, they won’t bother. Forms are how you capture information about potential clients. If your form is broken on mobile, you’re losing leads.

6. Your navigation bar is sticky and takes up half the screen

You know that navigation bar at the top that’s supposed to stick to the top of the screen so you can access it anytime? On mobile, those bars can take up a huge amount of screen space. Sometimes the navigation is so big on mobile that there’s almost no room left to see your actual content.

This creates a bad experience because people are fighting to read your content around a navigation menu that’s hogging space.

The opportunity is to make your sticky navigation smarter on mobile. It can be there, but it doesn’t need to be taking up real estate. A collapsible hamburger menu takes up almost no space and gives you room to show what actually matters.

7. Your footer is impossibly long and slow to scroll through

On desktop, a footer with multiple columns looks organized and clean. On mobile, those columns stack on top of each other and create an endless scroll. People looking for something simple, like your email address, have to scroll through a massive footer to find it.

This is a formatting issue that’s easy to overlook when you’re designing on a big screen. But mobile users experience it as clutter and friction.

The opportunity is to restructure your footer for mobile. Collapse multiple columns. Hide less important information behind a “More” button. Make the information people actually need easy to find.

8. Videos autoplay with sound and scare people half to death

You embedded a video on your homepage because it’s engaging and shows your personality. On desktop, people can see it and decide whether to play it. On mobile, that video starts playing automatically and at full volume, often without the user expecting it.

This is not just annoying. It’s intrusive. And if someone’s listening to something else or in a quiet space, they’re immediately frustrated.

The opportunity is simple: disable autoplay on mobile. Or at minimum, disable the auto-sound. Let people decide if they want to watch your video. You’ll have a much better experience.

9. Your pop-ups are bigger than the screen and you can’t close them

Pop-ups serve a purpose on desktop, but on mobile they often cover the entire screen and are either hard to close or the close button is tiny or hidden.

I see this a lot with email signup pop-ups. The pop-up is 500 pixels wide on mobile, which means it’s wider than the screen. You can see a sliver of your website around the edges, but you can’t interact with it. And the X to close the pop-up might be in a corner that’s off-screen.

Here’s what users do: they close their browser. They don’t sign up. They just leave.

The opportunity is to disable pop-ups entirely on mobile, or to make them genuinely mobile-friendly. A pop-up on mobile should be small enough to fit on the screen, have a visible close button, and not take over the entire experience.

10. Your forms don’t have mobile-optimized keyboards

When someone taps on an email field in your form, their phone should automatically show them an email keyboard with the @ symbol and a dot-com key. If they tap on a phone number field, they should get a numeric keyboard.

A lot of websites don’t specify what type of keyboard should appear, which means your phone just defaults to the regular text keyboard. Users have to switch keyboards manually or type symbols the hard way.

This is a tiny friction point, but tiny friction points add up. When you make it easy for someone to fill out your form, they’re more likely to actually do it.

Why This Matters for Your Business

You’re running a business. Your website is one of the places people find you and learn about what you do. If your website doesn’t work well on mobile, you’re creating unnecessary friction for potential clients.

More importantly, you’re putting yourself in a position where you feel embarrassed about your site. And I know from talking to a lot of women solopreneurs that when you’re embarrassed about your website, you share it less. You tell people it’s “outdated” or “a work in progress.” You hold yourself back from promoting yourself, because your site doesn’t feel like a confident version of you.

But here’s the thing: these are all fixable issues. They’re not signs that your website is beyond saving. They’re opportunities to make your website work better for the people who are visiting it.

How to Check Your Own Website for These Errors

The easiest way to see what your website looks like on mobile is to open it on your actual phone. Visit your homepage. Tap through your pages. Try to click your buttons. Fill out a form. Open your menu. Watch how it behaves.

Notice what feels clunky. Notice what feels broken. Notice where you found yourself thinking, “This shouldn’t work like that.”

That’s your baseline. That’s what we’re working with.

If you want a more thorough check, you can use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test tool. It’s free. You enter your website URL and it tells you whether your site is mobile-friendly and flags some issues. But honestly, the best test is just experiencing it yourself on your phone.

As I work with clients at Fairy Godmother of Tech, one of the first things I do is test their website on multiple devices. Because a website that works beautifully on desktop but falls apart on mobile is doing you more harm than good. It’s creating a disconnect between the image you’re trying to project and the experience you’re actually delivering.

What Comes Next

If you’ve discovered that your website has some of these mobile issues, here’s what I want you to know: you’re not starting from zero. Your website exists. It has content. It has a foundation. What we’re talking about is refinement. Making it work better. Making it work for how people actually use the internet.

The good news is that most of these issues are fixable. Some require a developer. Some are just configuration changes. Some are as simple as making your buttons bigger.

The better news is that once these are fixed, your website will feel like it represents you. Not an older version of you. The actual you. The version of you that’s grown and evolved and become more confident in what you do.

That’s the relief I’m talking about. That’s what happens when your website finally shows up the way you show up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I fix these issues myself, or do I need a developer?

Some of these, like making buttons bigger or adjusting text sizes, you can do if you have a WordPress site with a page builder. Others, like fixing navigation menus or form functionality, usually need a developer. The best approach is to make a list of what you’ve noticed, then have a conversation with someone who understands your website’s code. They can tell you which things are quick fixes and which things are bigger projects.

Does it cost a lot of money to make my website mobile-friendly?

Not necessarily. Some issues are literally configuration changes that cost nothing. Others might be a few hundred dollars if they need a developer’s time. The key is understanding what you have before you can estimate what it costs to fix it.

What if my website was built by a web design company? Can I ask them to fix these issues?

Absolutely. If someone built your site, they should be able to check it for mobile errors and fix them. If they’re not responsive to that request, it might be a sign that you need someone new. Your website is yours, and it should work for you across all devices.

How often should I check my website for mobile errors?

I’d recommend checking it every few months, especially if you’ve made updates. Mobile technology changes, browsers get updated, and sometimes things break after updates. A quick review on your phone every quarter keeps you ahead of any issues.

If your website no longer feels like you, let’s talk about it – Book a Free Website Clarity Call with Beth →

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