How to Check If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

To check if your website is mobile friendly, view it at phone size and test five things: it sets a viewport, it does not scroll sideways, the text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap, and the content matches the desktop version. You can do this with a free test tool, your browser’s developer tools, Lighthouse, Google Search Console and a real phone.

Google’s own Mobile-Friendly Test is no longer available, which is why this takes a few tools. See Mobile-Friendly Test Retired: What to Use Now for the background.

Way 1: Use a free mobile friendly test

1. Open the Mobile Friendly Test.
2. Paste the full address of the page, including https://.
3. Click Test mobile friendliness. The page loads in a phone-sized preview.
4. Read the verdict and the lists of passed checks and of warnings and failures.
5. Click “Show in preview” on a problem to highlight the elements responsible.
6. Switch between the 390, 360 and 430 pixel wide screens to see how the layout handles different phones.

It checks the viewport tag, sideways scrolling, text size, tap target size, pinch zoom and plugin content. It reads the HTML the server returns and does not run the page’s JavaScript, so it can look different from a real phone for pages built mostly with scripts.

Way 2: Use Chrome DevTools device mode

1. Open the page in Chrome and press F12 to open developer tools.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+M (Cmd+Shift+M on a Mac) to toggle the device toolbar.
3. Pick a phone from the device list, or drag to set your own width.
4. Reload the page and scroll through it.

This is good for spotting layout problems and testing different widths. It is an emulation, so it will not show every difference between a real phone and a desktop browser.

Way 3: Run Lighthouse

In the same developer tools, open the Lighthouse panel, choose the mobile option and run the audit. It checks performance on mobile conditions, accessibility, best practices and SEO, and it lists the elements it flags. PageSpeed Insights runs Lighthouse from a URL, with no developer tools needed.

Way 4: See what Google sees

In Google Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool on an important page and open the crawled or live-tested version. Look at the rendered screenshot and the HTML. Because Google indexes the mobile version of your pages, make sure the content, links and structured data you expect appear there. Mobile-First Indexing Explained covers what to compare.

Way 5: Test on a real phone

Open your key pages on a real phone, ideally two different ones, on a normal mobile connection. Scroll, tap the menu, fill in a form, and try to read the text without zooming. Nothing replaces this for judging how a page really feels.

What to look for

Check	What good looks like	What goes wrong
Viewport	The page has a viewport tag set to the device width	Without it, phones show a shrunken desktop layout
Sideways scrolling	Nothing is wider than the screen	Fixed-width images, tables or embeds push content off screen
Text size	Body text is readable without zooming	Tiny text that forces pinch-zooming
Tap targets	Buttons and links are large and spaced apart	Small, crowded links that are easy to miss
Zoom	Pinch zoom works	Zoom is blocked, which hurts people with low vision
Content parity	The same content, links and structured data as desktop	Sections removed or hidden on mobile
Popups	Nothing covers the main content	Full-screen popups that block the page
Speed	The page loads quickly on a phone	Oversized images and heavy scripts

On tap targets: the W3C’s WCAG 2.2 sets a minimum target size of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with larger targets such as 44 pixels recommended as the more comfortable size. The Mobile Friendly Test warns below 44 pixels and flags many targets under 32.

How to fix the common problems

• No viewport tag: add <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> inside the head.
• Sideways scrolling: find the element that is too wide, remove fixed pixel widths, and make images, embeds and tables fit within the screen.
• Small text: use at least 16 pixels for body text.
• Small tap targets: give buttons and standalone links at least 44 by 44 pixels, with space between them.
• Blocked zoom: remove user-scalable=no and low maximum-scale values from the viewport tag.
• Heavy images: compress them and use modern formats with the Image to AVIF Converter.

Check more than one page

A site-wide problem usually comes from a template, so test one page of each type: the homepage, a service or product page, a blog post, a contact page. To see the list of pages and spot templates with missing titles, headings or structured data, crawl the site with the Page Audit Checker. For the wider checklist, see the Technical SEO Audit Checklist.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my site is mobile friendly?

View it at phone size and check the viewport, sideways scrolling, text size, tap targets and content. A test tool, Chrome DevTools and a real phone together give the clearest picture.

Is there still a Google tool to check mobile friendliness?

No. Google retired the Mobile-Friendly Test and the Mobile Usability report in December 2023. Use Lighthouse, URL Inspection and the other tools in this guide.

Does a responsive site count as mobile friendly?

Usually, but not automatically. A responsive site can still have small text, crowded buttons or wide elements that overflow, so test it.

Why does my page look fine on my phone but fail a test?

The test may be checking for something a single phone hides, such as a different screen size, hidden overflow or blocked zoom.

How often should I check?

After any design or template change, and as part of regular audits a few times a year.