While having a mobile-friendly website is a great start, it’s not enough to drive traffic to your site. You also need to make sure your mobile website is rigorously optimized for Google—fast, stable, and easy to use on real devices. This guide walks you through a practical, step-by-step workflow to test, diagnose, and improve your mobile experience.
More than 75% of people don’t look beyond the first page of a Google search. If your mobile site isn’t in the top few spots, people will find alternative pages to click.
Roughly 60% of searches come from mobile devices—and that share keeps growing.
As you can see from the data, the results vary by industry. But overall, Google searches from smartphones and tablets have surpassed searches from computers and show no signs of reversing.
According to research from Statista, about 52.2% of all global web traffic comes from mobile devices. Numbers fluctuate by region and industry, but the direction is consistent—mobile first.
We’re not seeing any signs of these mobile trends slowing down. Expectations for speed and usability on phones are higher than ever.
If you don’t know where to begin, use the step-by-step workflow below to test and optimize your site’s mobile experience from top to bottom.
As experts in this space, we’ll share what you can start doing immediately to improve your mobile search ranking and conversions. Here’s what to do.
Step 1: Benchmark your current mobile performance
Start with a baseline so you know what to fix and how to measure progress. Run both lab and field tests:
Lab (controlled) testing: Use Chrome DevTools ? Lighthouse (in an Incognito window) to audit Performance and Best Practices on a mobile device profile with throttled CPU/network. Note your scores and the top “Opportunities” (e.g., reduce unused JavaScript).
Field (real-user) testing: In Google Search Console, open the Core Web Vitals report to see real-world metrics collected from Chrome users. Prioritize URLs with “Needs improvement” or “Poor” status on mobile.
Manual checks on devices: Open your key templates (home, category, product/service, blog, checkout) on at least one iPhone and one Android device. Note any layout shifts, slow interactions, broken menus, or hard-to-tap controls.
Step 2: Hit Core Web Vitals on mobile (no AMP required)
Focus on the three Core Web Vitals that most impact mobile UX: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), and INP (Interaction to Next Paint). Target fast loads, stable layouts, and responsive interactions across your top templates.
As of 2016, Google integrated accelerated mobile pages (AMP) into mobile search. Today, AMP is optional—meeting Core Web Vitals on regular pages is what matters.
How to improve LCP: inline critical CSS, preload hero images/fonts, serve images in next-gen formats (WebP/AVIF), and move render-blocking scripts off the critical path.
How to reduce CLS: set width/height on images and iframes, reserve space for ads/embeds, avoid inserting DOM elements above existing content after load, and keep font swapping predictable.
How to improve INP: minimize JavaScript execution on route changes, defer non-critical scripts, split large bundles, and avoid long tasks that freeze the main thread.
If you already use AMP and it performs well, that’s fine—but most sites are better served by a single, well-optimized codebase.
Step 3: Ensure a responsive, mobile-first design
Build for small screens first, then enhance for larger ones. Use the viewport meta tag, fluid grids (flexbox/grid), and CSS clamp() for scalable typography. Test portrait and landscape orientations.
Confirm primary actions (add to cart, contact, book, subscribe) are visible without pinching/zooming. Keep navigation simple, sticky headers unobtrusive, and forms short with mobile autofill enabled.
Remember that people browse on many devices. Keep layouts flexible, contrast accessible, and components touch-friendly to cover the widest range of contexts.
Step 4: Optimize images and media
Media is usually the biggest performance win on mobile. Standardize an image pipeline and stick to it.
Use modern formats: WebP/AVIF for photos, SVG for icons/illustrations. Keep PNGs for true transparency only.
Serve responsive images: add srcset and sizes, include explicit width/height to prevent layout shift, and lazy-load non-critical images/iframes.
Compress aggressively: aim for visually lossless compression and automate it in your build/deploy process so new uploads are optimized by default.
If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you know we like to use lots of images within our content. We’re not saying eliminate images—just ship smaller, smarter assets.
Step 5: Remove legacy tech and heavy scripts
Legacy tech like Flash is fully deprecated and unsupported. Beyond that, many mobile slowdowns come from heavy third-party scripts (ad tags, trackers, chat widgets).
Audit third-parties with Lighthouse’s “Third-party usage” and Chrome’s Performance panel. Remove what you can, delay what you can’t, and self-host critical libraries when possible. Keep animations CSS-based and lightweight.
Simple, purposeful design almost always converts better on mobile—and it’s easier to keep fast.
Step 6: Fix mobile UX blockers
View key pages on real phones and ask: what gets in the way? Then fix it.
Tap targets: make buttons large and well-spaced (48px minimum touch targets), avoid placing critical actions at the far edges where thumbs struggle.
Text & contrast: 16px base size minimum, strong contrast for readability in daylight, and short paragraphs for easy scanning.
Navigation: keep menus simple, ensure back/close affordances are obvious, and avoid elements that shift while the user is reading or tapping.
Use scroll heatmaps (e.g., Crazy Egg) to see where mobile users hesitate, bounce, or rage-tap. Redesign those friction points first.
Step 7: Use the right testing tools (what’s current)
Google’s older Mobile-Friendly Test and Mobile Usability report have been retired. Use these instead:
Lighthouse & PageSpeed Insights: quick audits plus optimization ideas, with lab and field data for mobile.
Search Console: Core Web Vitals (field data by URL group), Performance report (queries/pages/devices), and Page indexing issues that can affect visibility on mobile.
Chrome DevTools: device emulation, CPU/network throttling, Coverage tab for unused code, and Performance insights to spot long tasks.
If your website doesn’t do well in these audits, follow the recommendations—optimize images, reduce JavaScript, improve caching, and remove layout shifts—then retest until you meet your targets.
For those of you who are confused or don’t understand what these reports mean, you can always submit questions to forums or contact live customer support.
You can also check to see a more detailed description of where your mobile search traffic is coming from.
That way, you can segment your data and ultimately improve the customer experience while optimizing your mobile search results at the same time.
Step 8: Align content to mobile intent
People don’t use their mobile devices the same way they use their computers. On phones, queries trend shorter, more local, and more conversational (including voice).
Structure pages for quick answers and easy action: put the key takeaway first, use descriptive headings and bulleted lists, and add FAQs for common follow-ups. Mark up addresses, hours, products, and reviews with appropriate structured data when relevant.
We’re not saying you need to purposely add typing mistakes or improper grammar. But write in natural language and include common short forms to match how people actually search.
For titles and descriptions, don’t chase exact character limits—write clear, unique, front-loaded tags that earn the click on small screens.
Step 9: Avoid intrusive interstitials
As of January 10, 2017, Google began penalizing pages that obscure content with intrusive pop-ups during transitions from mobile search results.
Basically, your ranking will be negatively impacted if you have pop-ups hindering the user experience.
Here are some examples of pop-ups that Google considers to be intrusive:
If you must show an interstitial (e.g., for age gates or consent), make it small, easily dismissible, and don’t block content immediately on page load. Banners are safer than full-screen takeovers on mobile.
Conclusion: Your mobile optimization checklist
People use their mobile devices to search the Internet—and they expect fast, stable, and useful pages. Use this quick checklist to keep your process tight:
• Run Lighthouse and review Core Web Vitals in Search Console.
• Fix LCP/CLS/INP with critical CSS, reserved media space, and lighter JavaScript.
• Make design truly responsive and mobile-first; keep actions visible and forms short with autofill.
• Optimize images (WebP/AVIF, srcset, lazy-load); compress and cache assets; use a CDN.
• Remove legacy tech and defer or trim third-party scripts.
• Test UX on real phones; enlarge tap targets; improve contrast and readability.
• Structure content for mobile intent; use clear titles/descriptions and relevant structured data.
• Avoid intrusive interstitials; keep any required overlays small and dismissible.
• Re-audit after changes and set a monthly cadence for checks.
Work through the steps above, retest, and iterate. You’ll put your site in a much better position to rank higher on Google’s mobile results and, more importantly, delight users.