A mobile website check you can do yourself

You can learn a lot about a business website in ten minutes with a phone and a real customer question. Do not start by admiring the homepage. Start with a task: Can I tell whether this business does the work I need, and can I contact the right person?

Use your own phone first, then try a second device or ask someone unfamiliar with the site to repeat the journey. Record the device, browser and date so the result can be reproduced.

Start from a page a customer might find

Open a service page directly rather than always starting at the homepage. Read the first screen without zooming. Is the service named clearly? Can you find the coverage area, an example of relevant work and a contact action? Scroll at a normal pace; headings should make the page understandable without reading every paragraph.

For example, start on a plumber's boiler-repair page. Can you tell whether the business covers your area, whether it handles your problem and how to request help? Then follow that route without returning to the homepage. This is an illustrative task, not a claim about a particular business.

Follow the contact route all the way

Tap the primary action. Check whether it opens the expected page, email app or phone dialler. If there is a form, try it with realistic but clearly marked test information. Can you see the labels? Does the keyboard cover a required field? If a field is invalid, does the page explain what needs fixing without discarding everything else?

Check what success actually means. A prepared email draft is not a delivered enquiry. A form confirmation is not enough unless the business also receives the message. Test the visitor's confirmation and the business inbox separately.

Inspect the awkward parts

Turn the phone sideways and back. Enlarge the text in the browser. Check navigation, tables, image captions, menus and any sticky button. Look for text cut off at the edge, controls too close together, a horizontal page scroll or a button hidden behind another element.

You do not need to judge every technical detail. Write down the task that failed and where: “On iPhone Safari, the pricing table needs sideways scrolling but gives no hint,” is more useful than “mobile looks bad.” A screenshot can help, provided it does not include private customer information.

Keep a small test record

Fix broken enquiry routes and unreadable content first. Then repeat the same task and record whether it now works. If you are planning a new site, use the failed tasks as evidence in your website brief, not just a list of design preferences.