3 Mobile Website Problems That Are Easy to Miss on a Desktop
You’ve been staring at your website on your computer all morning. It looks fine. It looks good, actually. You show a friend on your phone, and suddenly something feels… off. But you can’t quite put your finger on what. So you tell yourself it’s probably fine, and you move on.
Here’s what I know: it’s probably not fine. And the reason you couldn’t quite name the problem is because you’ve never actually sat down and looked at your website the way most of your visitors do, from a small screen, with one hand, maybe while they’re waiting in line at the coffee shop.
This is the gap I see all the time. Women solopreneurs like you build and maintain your websites from a desktop. You check your email on desktop. You work from desktop. So of course your website feels familiar and functional when you’re sitting at your desk. But your visitors? They’re meeting you on their phones. And if your site isn’t working for that experience, you’re missing the actual moment that matters.
The good news: once you know what to look for, these mobile hiccups are totally fixable. Let me walk you through the three most common ones I see, and what to do about them.
The Button That’s Hard to Tap
Picture this. You’re on a mobile phone. Your thumb is ready. You’re looking for the thing that tells you how to work with someone. Where’s the button? Where’s the call? You see something on the screen, but when you try to tap it, you miss. You tap again. Maybe you hit something else instead.
This is usually a button or link that looks perfectly reasonable at desktop size but becomes unfriendly on a phone screen. A button that’s too small. Text links that are crammed together with only a couple pixels between them. A phone number that’s not actually clickable. A “contact me” button that’s the same color as the background.
Here’s what happens from a visitor’s perspective: she thinks your website is clunky. She doesn’t think “oh, the button is too small.” She thinks “this is hard to use” and sometimes she just leaves. The opportunity here is that you get to fix the experience and make it feel intentional and welcoming instead.
What to look for:
– Any button or clickable link should be at least 48 pixels tall (that’s about the size of a thumb pad)
– Text links need breathing room, not crammed together
– Your phone number should be an actual phone number link, not just typed out
– Any interactive element should have high contrast with its background
If you don’t know how to check these things or fix them yourself, that’s what website designers like me are for. But at minimum, grab your own phone and try to use your website the way you normally would. Can you tap things easily? If you’re fumbling, so are your visitors.
The Image That’s Eating Your Screen
This one makes me laugh a little, because it’s so easy to miss when you’re designing on a big monitor.
You have a beautiful hero image at the top of your homepage, or a big photo of you, or a graphic that explains what you do. On your desktop, it’s gorgeous. It’s the perfect size. It draws the eye.
On a mobile phone? That same image is now the entire first screen. Your headline text is squeezed into a tiny corner or hidden below the fold. Your visitor scrolls and scrolls before they even see what you do or who you are. If they’re on a slow connection, that giant image is also loading slowly, which means the page feels sluggish.
The opportunity here is to make sure your mobile experience prioritizes what matters most, not just what looks most dramatic.
What to look for:
– Is your main image taking up the entire phone screen, leaving nothing else visible?
– Can you still read your headline and understand what you do in the first screen?
– Are there multiple large images stacked on top of each other that require tons of scrolling?
– Is the image file size huge (which slows down loading)?
Here’s my move: on a mobile phone, I want the main visual to be maybe 50% of the first screen. That way your headline, a short bit of copy, and maybe a button are all visible before your visitor scrolls. The image supports the message, it doesn’t replace it. The message comes first.
The Form That’s a Pain to Fill Out
Many women find that their contact forms work beautifully on desktop, and then they get frustrated on mobile because the form feels clunky to fill in with thumbs.
Maybe your form has dropdown menus that are hard to tap open. Maybe there are fifteen different fields and your visitor has to scroll through the entire form just to see what you’re asking. Maybe the text is so small they can barely read the labels. Maybe there’s no space between the fields, so one tap registers on two different inputs at once.
From your desktop, you might not have even noticed this was a problem. The form seemed fine when you tested it.
From your visitor’s phone? It feels like friction. And I’ve seen a lot of business owners I talk to struggle with this because they assumed their form was working fine, it never occurred to them that the mobile experience was totally different.
What to look for:
– Can you fill in the form with your thumb easily, or do you need a stylus?
– Do you have to scroll through the entire form, or can you see most of it at once?
– Are the field labels clear and readable?
– Is there space between the input fields?
– Do dropdown menus open smoothly and are they easy to navigate?
The simplest fix for a clunky mobile form: cut the number of fields in half. Ask only what you absolutely need to know. You can always follow up with more questions later. A short form that gets filled out is infinitely better than a comprehensive form that nobody completes because they’re on a phone and it felt like too much work.
How to Actually Test This (It’s Easier Than You Think)
You don’t need fancy software or a tech degree. You need your own phone and maybe ten minutes.
Open your website on your phone the same way your visitors would. Tap around. Try to find the things you want them to find. Try to tap buttons. Try to fill out a form. Load the page and feel how fast or slow it is. Do this on different parts of your site, not just the homepage.
Then do it on WiFi and on a mobile data connection, because the experience is often completely different when the internet is slower.
Honestly? If you’re stumbling through this experience, so are your visitors. And that’s not a judgment, it’s an opportunity. Because once you know what’s difficult, you can fix it. And the moment you fix it is the moment your mobile visitors have a better experience.
If you’re not sure whether what you’re seeing is actually a problem or just your own impatience, I’m happy to take a look. I do a lot of website clarity calls where we walk through exactly this kind of thing, and I always come away with very specific observations about what’s working and what could be better.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my mobile website needs updating?
Grab your phone, open your website, and try to use it like a customer would. Can you tap buttons easily? Can you read everything? Can you quickly understand what you offer? If you’re frustrated, that’s your signal that there’s room for improvement.
Do I need to hire a designer to fix mobile problems, or can I do it myself?
It depends on what you’re using to build your site and how comfortable you are with technology. Some platforms like WordPress have mobile-friendly themes you can switch to, while others require coding. No shame either way, just be honest about your tech comfort level.
Why doesn’t my website look right when I test it on my phone?
Most likely your website was designed with desktop in mind, or it wasn’t properly optimized for smaller screens. This is super common and totally fixable, usually without starting from scratch.
Should I prioritize mobile design over desktop design?
Yes, honestly. More people are visiting you from phones than computers these days. But a good design works beautifully on both, so you don’t have to choose. It’s about making your website adapt gracefully to whatever screen size your visitor is using.
If your website no longer feels like you, let’s talk about it – Book a Free Website Clarity Call with Beth →