A mobile-first checklist for local business websites

Most people who find a local business online do it on a phone, and they usually want something specific: a phone number, opening hours, a price, directions. If your website makes them pinch, zoom, hunt or wait, they go back to the search results and pick the next business. This checklist is for owners, not developers. You do not need any technical skill to run it. You need a phone, ten minutes and a little patience.

Why "mobile-first" means more than "it fits the screen"

A site that merely shrinks to fit a small screen is not the same as one designed for the phone first. Mobile-first means the small screen was the starting point: the most important action is visible straight away, text is comfortable to read without zooming, and nothing important is hidden behind a tiny menu. Desktop is then the enhancement, not the other way around.

The checklist

1. The first screen answers three questions

Without scrolling, a visitor should be able to tell what you do, where you do it, and how to reach you. If the top of your page is a large decorative photo and a slogan, you are spending your most valuable space on decoration.

• Your business type and town are written in plain words near the top.
• There is a clear button to call or request a quote, visible without scrolling.
• The page does not open with a pop-up covering the content.

2. Tap-to-call actually works

Your phone number should be a link, so one tap starts the call. In the page code this is a link that begins with tel:. Test it: tap your number. If nothing happens, or you have to copy and paste it, fix that first. It is the single most valuable change on many local sites.

• The number appears in the header or a sticky bar, and again near the bottom of each page.
• The same goes for your email address and your street address (which should open maps).

3. Text is readable without zooming

Body text should be comfortable at arm's length. As a rule of thumb, aim for roughly 16 pixels or larger for paragraph text, with generous space between lines. Check that grey text on a white background is still easy to read in bright sunlight, because that is how many people will see it.

• You never need to pinch-zoom to read a paragraph.
• Lines are short enough that you are not scrolling sideways.
• Text colour contrasts strongly with the background.

4. Buttons and links are thumb-sized

Fingers are bigger than mouse pointers. Buttons and links need enough room that you hit the one you meant. Accessibility guidance (WCAG 2.2) sets a minimum touch target of 24 by 24 pixels, and a larger target of around 44 pixels is far more comfortable. Try tapping links that sit close together, such as a list of services in your footer, and see if you ever hit the wrong one.

5. The page loads quickly on mobile data

Turn off wifi and load your home page. Count how long you wait. Slow pages are usually caused by huge photos uploaded straight from a camera, heavy page-builder themes, and many third-party scripts. The usual fixes are resizing images before uploading, using modern formats such as WebP, and removing anything you do not need. You can test any page for free with Google PageSpeed Insights, which reports what is slowing it down.

6. Nothing jumps around while loading

If the page shifts as images and adverts appear, you tap the wrong thing. Images should have their dimensions set in the page so the browser reserves space for them.

7. The menu is simple

Phone menus usually collapse to a button. Check that it opens, closes, and is easy to use with one thumb. Keep the number of items small. If you have more than seven or eight top-level choices, some of them probably belong somewhere else.

8. Forms are short and phone-friendly

Typing on a phone is slow. Every extra field costs you enquiries.

• Ask only for what you need: name, phone or email, and a short message.
• Each field has a visible label, not just faint placeholder text that vanishes when typing starts.
• The phone number field brings up the number keypad, and the email field brings up the email keyboard.
• After sending, the visitor sees a clear confirmation message.
• You actually receive the message. Send a test enquiry once a month.

9. Opening hours, address and map are easy to find

Do not hide hours in an image or a downloadable PDF. Put them in text so they can be read, searched and copied. Include a map link that opens the visitor's maps app with your address filled in, and say plainly if there is parking or step-free access.

10. Prices, services and key details are in text, not pictures

Menus, price lists and offers saved as images or PDFs are hard to read on a phone and invisible to search engines. Write them as normal page text.

11. Pop-ups, banners and chat widgets stay out of the way

A cookie banner that fills half the screen, or a chat bubble covering the call button, costs you customers. If you must use them, check they are easy to dismiss and do not block your main actions.

12. You tested on a real phone, and an older one too

Browser tools that pretend to be a phone are useful but not a substitute. Test on the phone in your pocket, and borrow an older or smaller one from a friend or relative. Try both portrait and landscape, and try it once with your phone set to a larger text size, which many people use.

If you can complete your own most important task, such as booking or calling, in under thirty seconds on a phone, you are in good shape. If not, that is where to start.

A printable version

Tick these off as you go: first screen answers what, where and how to reach you; tap-to-call works; text readable without zooming; buttons easy to hit; page loads quickly on mobile data; nothing jumps while loading; simple menu; short forms with labels; hours, address and map in text; prices in text; no blocking pop-ups; tested on a real phone.

How we approach this at Raijin Studios

We design the phone layout first and enlarge it for tablets and desktops, so the priorities are settled before decoration. Pages are hand-coded to stay light, fonts and images are optimised, and we test on real phones before launch. If you would like a quick outside opinion, our free website audit checks your own site and shows what it finds.

Sources and further reading

• W3C: Understanding Target Size (Minimum), WCAG 2.2
• Google PageSpeed Insights, a free page speed test