Mobile SEO Checklist
Google uses the mobile version of your pages for indexing and ranking. Use this list for any site, especially one with a separate mobile layout or heavy scripts. It covers parity, speed, usability and crawl access.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- With mobile-first indexing, content that only appears on desktop may not be indexed at all.
- How to check or fix it
- Compare the mobile and desktop rendered HTML in the URL Inspection tool's live test, or crawl with a smartphone user agent in Screaming Frog.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Without it, mobile browsers render a zoomed-out desktop layout that is hard to use.
- How to check or fix it
- Include <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> in the head. Verify in Lighthouse under Best Practices.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Mismatched metadata on a separate mobile site gives Google conflicting signals.
- How to check or fix it
- Compare head tags on both versions. On m-dot sites, use rel=canonical on mobile and rel=alternate on desktop pairs.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Googlebot needs those files to render the page the way a phone would.
- How to check or fix it
- Run the URL Inspection live test and read the page resources list for blocked files. Fix any Disallow rules covering asset folders.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Mobile devices and networks are slower, so mobile scores are usually the limiting ones.
- How to check or fix it
- Open the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights on the Mobile tab. Targets are LCP 2.5s or less, INP 200ms or less, CLS 0.1 or less.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Google has a page experience signal against intrusive interstitials that block content from search visitors.
- How to check or fix it
- Open key landing pages on a phone from a search result. Replace blocking popups with small banners or delayed prompts.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Cramped links cause misclicks and frustrate users, which hurts conversions.
- How to check or fix it
- Use Lighthouse's Accessibility and tap target audits, and test by hand on a real phone.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Tiny text forces zooming and raises bounce rates on small screens.
- How to check or fix it
- Set body text to at least 16px and check for horizontal scrolling in Chrome DevTools device mode.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Structured data or images missing from the mobile version are lost under mobile-first indexing.
- How to check or fix it
- Run the Rich Results Test with the smartphone crawler and compare detected items to desktop.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Images that only load after a scroll event or click may never be seen by Googlebot.
- How to check or fix it
- Use native loading="lazy" and confirm images appear in the rendered HTML in URL Inspection.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Mobile visitors often want to act immediately and abandon forms that are hard to fill.
- How to check or fix it
- Use tel: links for phone numbers and correct input types such as type="email" and type="tel" to trigger the right keyboards.
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Common questions
What is mobile-first indexing?
Google primarily uses the mobile version of a page's content for indexing and ranking. If your mobile page has less content than desktop, the missing content is not counted.
Do I need a separate mobile site?
No. Responsive design is simpler and Google's recommended setup, because one URL and one HTML version serve every device. Separate m-dot sites need extra care with canonicals and parity.
Do these next
Robots.txt Checklist
Check that your robots.txt is reachable, correctly formatted and blocking only what it should, without accidentally hiding pages from Google.
Technical SEO Audit Checklist
A step-by-step technical SEO audit covering crawling, indexing, speed, security and structure so you can find and rank the fixes that matter.