What Does Your Website Look Like on a Phone? You Might Be Surprised

You’re sitting in your car waiting for an appointment, and a potential client texts you asking a question about your services. You pull up your website on your phone to reference something, and… nothing looks right.

The text is tiny. The buttons are in weird places. You have to pinch and zoom to read anything. You’re thinking, “Oh God, is this what everyone sees when they visit my site on their phone?”

That hollow feeling in your stomach? That’s real. And you’re not alone in it.

Here’s what I see a lot of business owners I talk to do: they build their website on a desktop, make sure it looks beautiful when they’re sitting at their desk, and then they never actually check what happens when someone visits on a mobile device. A lot of women find that when they finally do check, it’s kind of a shock.

The thing is, if you’re embarrassed to look at your own website on your phone, imagine how your potential clients feel. They’re trying to learn about you, trying to figure out if they want to work with you, and they’re squinting at a website that wasn’t built with them in mind.

This is one of the biggest opportunities I see when I work with women solopreneurs. And the beautiful part? It’s fixable. And once it’s fixed, something shifts. You stop apologizing for your site. You start confidently sharing it.

The Phone Isn’t Optional Anymore

Let me be direct: in 2024, your website needs to work beautifully on a phone. This isn’t a nice-to-have. This isn’t something you can put off until next year. It’s foundational.

Here’s why it matters so much. People don’t research your business the way they used to. They’re not sitting down at a computer, making a list of questions, and then emailing you. They’re on their phone, right now, while they’re thinking about you. They’re in the grocery store. They’re lying in bed at 10 PM. They’re between meetings.

If your website doesn’t work on the device they’re holding in their hand, they move on. Not because you’re not good at what you do, but because your website made it too hard to find out.

I’ve been designing websites for 15 years, and I can tell you this: the websites that work best are built mobile-first. That means we start with how it looks and functions on a phone, and then we expand from there. Not the other way around.

Many women find that their current website was designed 3, 4, maybe 5 years ago, back when mobile wasn’t quite as critical as it is now. Or it was built by someone who specialized in one platform but didn’t think through how it would look on another. Now it’s a mess, and every time you check it on your phone, you feel a little bit of dread.

What “Broken on Mobile” Actually Looks Like

I’m going to describe some things, and I want you to be honest with yourself. Do any of these sound familiar?

The text is too small. You have to zoom in or tilt your phone sideways to read anything. The menu is cramped. The buttons are so tiny that you’re worried people can’t actually click them.

The images are stretched or squished. You have a beautiful photo on your desktop site, but on your phone it’s either so small you can’t see it, or it’s stretched horizontally and looks weird. Sometimes there’s weird white space around everything.

The navigation doesn’t make sense. On desktop, maybe you have a horizontal menu across the top. On mobile, that menu either disappears completely, or it’s a hamburger menu that works fine, except everything is still tiny and hard to tap. Or sometimes the menu is there on mobile but it takes up the entire screen.

Things overlap or stack in weird ways. Your contact form and your services list are next to each other on desktop, but on mobile they’re stacking on top of each other in a way that makes the page ridiculously long. You have to scroll forever to get through your website.

Videos, forms, or interactive elements don’t work. You embedded a video or created a contact form, and it works great on your computer, but when you visit on your phone, the video won’t play, or the form is broken, or it just doesn’t display correctly.

The buttons don’t work right. Your “Schedule Now” button or your “Contact Me” button is there, but it’s so small or positioned so weirdly that it’s hard to tap. Or when someone does tap it, it doesn’t do what you expected.

Load time is slow. You’re on a mobile network, and your website takes forever to load. The images are huge, the files aren’t optimized, and by the time the page loads, your potential client has already moved on.

If you recognized yourself in any of these, I have good news: these are all fixable. Not because you did anything wrong, but because websites are living things. They need maintenance and updates. Your website has been working hard for you, and now it needs some attention.

Why This Matters for Your Business

I approach every website from a marketing perspective first, aesthetics second. That’s been my approach for more than 30 years in sales and marketing, and 15 years in web design.

What does that mean? It means your website’s job isn’t to be beautiful. Its job is to help potential clients understand what you do and decide if they want to work with you. Beautiful is great, but if someone can’t read your website on their phone, it can’t do its job.

Think about what happens when someone can’t easily navigate your mobile site. They get frustrated. They can’t find your contact information. They can’t read your service descriptions. They assume you’re not paying attention to details. They wonder if you care about making things easy for clients. Then they look at your competitor’s website, which does work on mobile, and they hire them instead.

This isn’t about being judged. It’s about lost opportunity. Every person who visits your website on a phone and hits a broken experience is someone you never get to talk to.

The flip side? When your website works beautifully on mobile, something changes. People can easily find what they’re looking for. They can read about you without squinting. They can click your contact button without it taking three tries. They have a better experience, which means they’re more likely to reach out. They’re more likely to become a client.

That’s the opportunity here.

Checking Your Own Website (Do It Right Now)

You should absolutely check your website on your phone right now. But do it the right way. Don’t just load it up while you’re working. Actually visit it the way a potential client would.

Here’s what I want you to do:

Step 1: Go to your website in a web browser on your phone. Not an app, not a preview. Actually visit it the way someone would if they Googled you and clicked the link.

Step 2: Try to do what your ideal client would do. Can you easily find your services? Can you read your about page? Can you find your contact information? Can you click the button that leads to booking or reaching out?

Step 3: Pay attention to how you feel. Does your site feel easy to navigate? Does it feel trustworthy? Would you hire you based on what you see?

Step 4: Try it in a few different browsers. Website browsers work a little differently. Test it in Safari, in Chrome, in Firefox. Sometimes it looks good in one and broken in another.

Step 5: Try it in portrait mode and landscape mode. When you rotate your phone, does everything shift and stay readable? Or does it break?

Here’s the thing: a lot of business owners I talk to do this exercise and realize their site is way worse on mobile than they thought. And you know what comes next? Relief. Because now you know what needs to be fixed.

You’re not crazy for thinking something was off. Something IS off. And it’s not a reflection on you. It’s just an opportunity to make it right.

Common Problems and How They Happen

Outdated website builders: If your website is more than 5 or 6 years old, it was probably built with a tool or platform that wasn’t mobile-first. Even if it looks okay on mobile now, it’s likely not optimized for it.

DIY builders that aren’t quite right: A lot of women I work with built their sites themselves using platforms like Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. These are great tools, but if you don’t know how to configure them properly, they can look broken on mobile. Maybe you picked a template that wasn’t responsive. Maybe you added elements that don’t scale down properly. Maybe you haven’t updated it in years.

Designed by someone who specializes in desktop: You hired someone to build your site, but they primarily designed for desktop or large screens. Mobile was an afterthought, not the foundation.

Never updated or maintained: Your website is beautiful on the desktop because someone did good work 4 years ago. But the web has changed. Your hosting might be slow. Your images might be outdated. Your plugins might not be compatible with mobile anymore.

Too many bells and whistles: Sometimes we add things to our websites because they sound cool, like animations or auto-playing videos or complex sliders. These look flashy on a desktop but can actually slow down your site and break the mobile experience.

None of these are failures. They’re just what happens when websites age, or when we build them without mobile as the priority from the start.

What a Good Mobile Experience Looks Like

Let me paint a picture of what I’m aiming for when I design or redesign a website for a woman solopreneur.

You’re sitting on your phone, and you land on my client’s website. The first thing you see is her name or business name, really clearly. No confusion about where you are.

The text is readable without zooming. It’s not tiny. It’s not huge. It’s just right.

The navigation is simple and makes sense. You can tap where you need to go with one finger, no double-tapping, no weird positioning.

The images look clear and beautiful. They’re not stretched or squished. They load quickly.

If there’s a button you need to click, like “Schedule a Call” or “Send Me an Email,” it’s big enough to tap easily and it’s positioned where you’d expect it.

The page isn’t ridiculously long. You can scroll through the content and find what you need without feeling like you’re reading War and Peace.

Forms, if there are any, are easy to fill out on a mobile keyboard. The fields are big enough. You’re not fighting tiny input boxes.

Videos or other media play smoothly without buffering forever.

When you’re done reading and you’re ready to take the next step, you know exactly how to do it. There’s no confusion. No hunting.

That’s a good mobile experience. It’s not fancy. It’s not complicated. It’s just easy.

When to DIY vs. When to Get Help

Okay, so you checked your website on your phone and it’s broken. Now what? Do you fix it yourself, or do you hire someone?

Here’s how I think about it.

You can probably fix it yourself if: Your website is on a platform like Squarespace or Wix that’s supposed to be mobile-responsive, and you just haven’t checked the mobile settings. Sometimes it’s as simple as turning on the mobile view and adjusting the template settings. If you’re comfortable poking around in the admin area and trying things, this might be fixable without help.

You should probably get help if: Your website is custom-coded, or built on WordPress with a lot of plugins, or hosted on an older platform. If you’re not comfortable going into the backend, or if you’ve already tried to fix it and made things worse, it’s time to bring in someone who knows what they’re doing.

You should definitely get help if: Your website is more than 4 or 5 years old. It probably needs more than just mobile optimization. It probably needs to be rebuilt or significantly refreshed. That’s beyond a DIY fix.

Here’s the thing about DIY fixes: sometimes you can make it better. Sometimes you can make it worse. If you break something, you might break it in a way that’s hard to unfold.

If you’re unsure, it’s worth talking to a professional. A lot of business owners I work with spend three months trying to fix their site themselves, then reach out to me, and it takes me a few hours because I know where to look. You could have had a working mobile site for three months instead of stress about it.

Your time is valuable. Your website is your shop window. It’s worth getting it right.

The Bigger Picture: Your Website Should Fit You

Here’s what I really want you to understand. Your website isn’t just a technical thing. It’s a representation of you and your business. When it doesn’t work on mobile, it’s sending a message: “I’m not paying attention to how people actually use the internet. I’m not thinking about your experience.”

That’s not true about you. I know you are thinking about your client’s experience. That’s why you’re good at what you do. But your website isn’t reflecting that right now.

When your website works beautifully on mobile, when it’s fast and easy to navigate and beautiful to look at, it sends a different message: “I think about details. I make things easy. I’m someone I’d want to work with.”

That message is true. It’s just been hidden behind a website that doesn’t represent who you are anymore.

I’ve worked with hundreds of women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who’ve been building their businesses for years. They’re accomplished. They’re good at what they do. They’ve grown so much, and they know it. But their website is frozen in an older version of themselves.

Every time they share it, they feel a little embarrassed. Every time a potential client visits, they’re worried about what they’re thinking. That feeling is exhausting.

The opportunity here is relief. Not the excitement of a brand new shiny thing. Just the simple, beautiful relief of looking at your website and thinking, “Yes. That’s me.”

Your website should sound like you. It should sell what you sell. It should work the way you work, which means it should work beautifully on the device your clients are actually using to find you.

If you’re ready to make that happen, I make it easy. Visit me at Fairy Godmother of Tech and let’s talk about what your website needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

If my website was built in the last 2 years, should it automatically work on mobile?

It should, but not always. Even newer websites built on modern platforms can have mobile issues if the person who built it didn’t test it on actual devices, or if they added custom elements that aren’t mobile-friendly. Always check it yourself on your actual phone, not just in a preview.

Is it expensive to fix a broken mobile website?

It depends on what’s broken. If it’s a small tweak to your existing site, it might be a few hundred dollars. If your whole site needs to be rebuilt to work properly on mobile, it’s more. Either way, the cost of fixing it is almost always less than the cost of losing clients because your site doesn’t work. That’s not math that’s even close.

Can I test my website on mobile without an actual phone?

Your computer’s web browser has mobile preview tools that can help you see what your site looks like on different screen sizes. That’s a good starting point, but it’s not the same as testing on an actual phone with actual network speeds and actual touch interactions. Do both.

How often should I check my website on mobile?

Every time you update something, and at least once a year even if you haven’t made changes. Technology changes, your phone’s screen size might change, browsers update. What worked last year might not work the same way this year.

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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