Think about how people actually look for a tradesperson. They are on the sofa with their phone, or stood in a kitchen looking at a leak, or on a break at work. Rarely are they sat at a desk with a big screen.
So your website has to be designed for the phone first, and the desktop second.
What phone-first means in practice
Big, tappable buttons. Fingers are not mouse pointers. The call button should be large, easy to hit and impossible to miss.
Text you can read without zooming. If someone has to pinch the screen to read your services, they will leave.
One clear column. On a small screen, content should stack neatly rather than squeeze into side-by-side boxes.
Short, scannable sections. People scroll quickly on a phone. Headings, short paragraphs and lists work better than walls of text.
Fast loading. Mobile connections are not always great, and huge images slow everything down. See website speed.
Tap-to-call. Phone numbers should be links that dial with a single tap.
The thumb test
Hold your phone one-handed and try to use your own site. Can you reach the call button with your thumb? Can you open the menu? Can you fill in the form without frustration? If not, customers feel the same.
Forms on a phone
Forms need big fields, the right keyboard (number pad for phone numbers, email keyboard for emails) and as few boxes as possible. See quote forms that get filled in.
Check the menu
A long menu that works fine on a computer can become a mess on a phone. Keep the navigation simple, with a clear button to open it and just the pages that matter.
Look at it on a few different phones
Phones come in many sizes. Test on an older phone as well as your own. If you can, ask a friend or a customer to try the site and watch what they do.
Google cares too
Google looks at the mobile version of your site when deciding how to rank it. A site that works badly on phones is at a disadvantage in search as well as with customers.
Design for the phone in somebody’s hand, in a hurry. If it works there, it will work everywhere.
Built for phones from day one
Every site we build is designed phone-first, then scaled up for bigger screens. See what is included.