When most business owners think about their website, they picture it on a desktop monitor. That is understandable — they probably review it on their office computer. But their customers are not on office computers. They are on phones. And the experience is completely different.
The Numbers
63% of all web traffic in the US comes from mobile devices. For local business searches, the number is even higher — 76% of local searches happen on smartphones.
Google has used mobile-first indexing since 2019. That means Google primarily uses the mobile version of your website for ranking and indexing. If your desktop site is beautiful but your mobile site is broken, Google sees the broken version.
What Mobile-First Actually Means
Mobile-first design does not mean "make the desktop site smaller." It means designing for the phone screen first, then expanding for larger screens. The difference is fundamental:
Desktop-first approach (wrong): 1. Design a beautiful desktop layout 2. Try to squeeze it onto a phone screen 3. Things break, overlap, or become tiny 4. Add a mobile stylesheet to "fix" the problems
Mobile-first approach (right): 1. Design for the smallest screen first 2. Ensure content hierarchy works with one column 3. Make buttons big enough to tap (minimum 44x44 pixels) 4. Ensure text is readable without zooming 5. Expand the layout for larger screens, adding multi-column layouts where space allows
The Most Common Mobile Problems
Text too small. If a visitor has to pinch-to-zoom to read your website, you have already lost them. Body text should be at least 16px on mobile.
Buttons too small or too close together. Fingers are not mouse pointers. Tap targets need to be at least 44x44 pixels with adequate spacing between them.
Horizontal scrolling. If any element is wider than the screen and causes horizontal scrolling, the experience is broken. This usually happens with images, tables, or fixed-width elements.
Slow loading on cellular networks. Mobile users are often on 4G or even 3G connections. A page that loads in 2 seconds on WiFi might take 6 seconds on 4G. Optimize for the slower connection.
Pop-ups and interstitials. Google penalizes mobile sites that show intrusive pop-ups. Beyond the SEO penalty, they are incredibly annoying on small screens. Skip them entirely.
Navigation buried in tiny hamburger menus. The three-line menu icon is fine if the primary calls to action are still visible. Do not hide your phone number and booking button inside a hamburger menu. The most important actions should be visible without any tapping.
What Ted Builds
Every website Ted builds starts with mobile. The design, the content hierarchy, the navigation, the calls to action — all optimized for a phone screen first. Then expanded gracefully for tablets and desktops.
The result: a website that works perfectly for the 63-76% of visitors who are on their phones, while still looking great on desktop.
Ready to see your new website?
Ted scores your site and rebuilds it overnight. $500.