The Last Time You Checked Your Website on Your Phone, Was It Today?
I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to answer honestly: when’s the last time you actually looked at your website on your phone?
Not the desktop version. Not squinting at it on your laptop. Your actual phone, the device you hold in your hand probably 47 times a day. The device your clients are using to find you, read about you, and decide whether to book a call or hire you.
If you hesitated before answering, I already know what I need to know.
Most of the accomplished women I work with haven’t looked at their website on a phone in months. Some can’t remember the last time they did. And here’s the thing that keeps me up at night: they have no idea what their potential clients are actually seeing. They’re living in a beautiful fantasy where their website looks like it does on their MacBook. Meanwhile, on a phone? It might be a completely different story, and not in a good way.
This isn’t about you being lazy or dropping the ball. It’s not. This is about something bigger: we’re not taught to think like our clients. We design (or have designed) for the way we look at things. And most of us don’t look at our own websites on our phones. So we have absolutely no idea what we’re asking people to do.
Let me name what I hear a lot: “I think my website is fine. I’m probably just being paranoid.” Or, “It probably looks okay on mobile. I mean, most websites do, right?”
Those sentences feel safe to say out loud. But underneath? There’s a whisper of doubt. A tiny voice wondering if maybe, just maybe, something’s not quite working. And you’re not checking because part of you already knows something might be off, and you’re not sure you want to face that.
I get it. I see this all the time.
Here’s what I want you to understand: checking your website on your phone isn’t a task you’re failing at. It’s an opportunity to actually understand what your people are experiencing. And that changes everything.
Why Your Phone Is the Real Truth
Your website lives in two worlds: the desktop where you probably manage it, and the phone where most of your potential clients are actually finding you.
I know what you’re thinking: “Beth, isn’t my website responsive? Doesn’t that mean it just works everywhere?”
Responsive design is beautiful and important. It means your website adjusts to different screen sizes instead of staying stuck at one size. But responsive doesn’t mean flawless. It means your website is flexible. And flexibility on a phone screen? That can reveal things that look totally fine on a big desktop monitor.
Here are the kinds of opportunities I see come up constantly when someone finally checks their site on mobile:
Text that’s too small to read comfortably. I’m not talking “squint and you can read it.” I’m talking about that annoying feeling where you have to zoom in, then scroll sideways, then zoom back out to get the next paragraph. Your clients don’t have time for that. Neither do you, honestly. If you wouldn’t read it on your phone, why would you expect them to?
Images that are beautiful on desktop but take up your entire phone screen. I worked with a consultant recently who had this gorgeous hero image on her homepage. On her desktop? Stunning. On her phone? You had to scroll through an entire phone screen of image before you even saw her headline. Her offer disappeared below the fold before anyone knew what she actually did.
Forms that are impossible to fill out. I’m talking about contact forms where the fields are so close together that your thumb hits two of them at once. Forms where there are 15 fields when there should be three. Forms that look smart and organized on desktop but feel like a maze on a phone. You know what people do? They leave. They don’t fill it out and come back later. They just go find someone else.
Navigation that’s either hidden behind a hamburger menu, or so expansive that it takes up half your screen. One or the other is fine. Both? That’s a frustration waiting to happen.
Text that’s styled in a way that looks gorgeous on desktop but becomes impossible to skim on mobile. Long paragraphs, no spacing, tiny headings. On your phone, it looks like a wall of words.
Buttons that are too small to tap without accidentally hitting the wrong thing. This one drives me crazy because it’s so easy to fix, and yet I see it constantly. A button that’s 28 pixels wide might look good on desktop, but on a phone? It’s a nightmare.
These aren’t failures. They’re opportunities to understand the actual experience your clients are having. And once you see them, you can’t unsee them. Which is actually the good news.
The Guilt You’re Carrying Is Optional
Here’s something I need to say: if you haven’t checked your website on your phone in a long time, that doesn’t mean you’re bad at business or technology. It means you’re human.
Most of us were never taught to think about mobile-first design. We build websites (or hire people to build them) with our experience in mind, because that’s the experience we understand. We’re familiar with sitting at a desk, opening a browser, reading a full desktop site. So we create for that. Then we add “mobile optimization” as an afterthought, like a bonus feature instead of a fundamental reality.
The truth is simpler and kinder: you probably just haven’t had a reason to check. You manage your site from your laptop. You design from your laptop. You think about your site while you’re at your desk. So when do you look at it on your phone? There’s no obvious reason to.
Until now.
Because here’s the reality: somewhere between 60-80% of web traffic comes from phones. Not all of it, but the vast majority. Your ideal clients are reading your website on their phones during lunch break, or in the car waiting for their kid’s piano lesson to end, or lying in bed at 10 PM wondering if they should finally do something about that thing they’ve been putting off.
They’re not sitting at a desk with a monitor. They’re in the real world, on a small screen, deciding in about 8 seconds whether you’re worth their time.
I’m not telling you this to scare you or make you feel like you’ve been doing it wrong. I’m telling you because once you know this, everything shifts. You stop feeling guilty about not checking your site on mobile. Instead, you get curious. You want to see what your clients are actually seeing. And that curiosity is where the magic happens.
How to Actually Check Your Website on Your Phone (And What to Look For)
This is going to sound almost too simple, but here’s what you do: grab your phone, open your browser, type in your website URL (or find it in your bookmarks), and just… look at it.
Scroll through it like you’re a complete stranger who just found your site. Don’t think about what it should look like. Notice what it actually looks like. Read it like your ideal client would read it, not like you’re inspecting it for problems.
Here’s what to pay attention to:
The experience of reading. Does the text feel easy to read, or does it feel like work? Are you comfortable with the font size, or are you squinting? Can you skim the page and understand what it’s about in 10 seconds, or do you have to read carefully?
The flow of information. Is the most important stuff at the top? Can you find what you’re looking for without scrolling forever? Does the page feel like it’s telling you a story, or does it feel random and scattered?
The calls to action. Are your buttons (or links, or whatever you’re using to tell people what to do next) easy to find? Are they big enough to tap? Do you know what happens when you tap them?
The images. Are they loading properly? Are they getting in the way of the message, or are they supporting it? On mobile, big images take up space, are they worth it?
The contact information. Can someone actually contact you? Is there a phone number they can tap to call? Is there an email address? Is there a contact form that doesn’t feel like a nightmare to fill out on a phone?
The overall feeling. This is the big one. When you finish scrolling, do you feel like you know who this person is and what they do? Do you feel like you’d want to work with them? Or do you feel confused, or bored, or like something’s missing?
That last one is the truest test. Because if you, the person who knows everything about your business, don’t feel excited about your website on your phone, then your potential clients definitely won’t either.
The Opportunity in Front of You
Here’s what I want you to know: the fact that you haven’t checked your website on your phone in a long time isn’t a problem. It’s an opportunity. An opportunity to actually see your business through your clients’ eyes. An opportunity to understand what they’re experiencing. An opportunity to fix things that might be getting in the way without you even knowing it.
This is how businesses that feel outdated start to feel current again. Not by starting from scratch. Not by completely redesigning everything. But by understanding, really understanding, what people are actually seeing when they visit you on the device they use 50 times a day.
And here’s the thing that most people don’t realize: when you check your website on your phone and you see something that doesn’t work, you’re not looking at a failure. You’re looking at something you can actually do something about. Right now. Today.
If your button is too small, you can make it bigger. If your text is hard to read, you can increase the font size. If the form has too many fields, you can simplify it. If your images are taking up too much space, you can adjust them. These aren’t big, scary, expensive changes. These are tweaks. And every single one of them moves you closer to a website that actually works the way you need it to work.
Unlike a fairytale, the magic continues past midnight, and in this case, the magic is just you, your phone, and a little bit of willingness to see what’s really there.
So here’s my challenge for you: right now, before you do anything else, grab your phone and look at your website. Just look. Don’t judge. Don’t stress. Don’t get defensive about anything you see.
Just notice.
Notice what it looks like. Notice how it feels to scroll through it. Notice what’s easy and what’s confusing. And most importantly, notice whether it feels like you. Because that’s what this is really about. Your website should reflect who you are now, not who you were two years ago. And the first step to knowing whether it does is actually looking at it.
I help a lot of women do exactly this, find the opportunities hiding in their current website. Sometimes it’s small stuff. Sometimes it’s bigger. But the women I work with tell me the same thing afterward: “I had no idea what people were actually seeing.”
You’re about to know. And once you do, everything else becomes possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my website looks totally different on mobile than I expected?
That’s actually really common, and it’s not a reflection on you. It usually means a few things might need adjusting, maybe the way images are sized, or how the layout is organized, or font sizes. The good news? Now you know what needs attention. That’s half the battle.
Do I need to redesign my entire website if mobile looks off?
Absolutely not. Most of the time, it’s much smaller tweaks. Adjusting spacing, resizing buttons, simplifying forms, fixing images, these changes happen in your website builder, usually in 10 minutes to an hour, depending on what you’re working with.
If my website looks fine on my desktop monitor, isn’t it fine on mobile too?
Not always. Desktop and mobile have completely different constraints. A layout that feels spacious and organized on a big monitor can feel cramped and confusing on a phone. The only way to really know is to actually look at it on a phone.
Should I hire someone to fix mobile issues, or can I do it myself?
That depends on what you’re working with and how comfortable you are making changes. I make it easy for women like you to understand what needs to happen and how to make it happen, whether you do it yourself or bring in help.
If your website no longer feels like you, let’s talk about it – Book a Free Website Clarity Call with Beth →