My first suggestion to optimize your website for mobile is to visit your local smartphone store. Target, Best buy, Walmart, AT

Start with the oldest, least sophisticated Android phone you can find in the store. Browse your site. Try to buy three best-selling products and three most difficult products. Try to find and check. You will quickly experience the pain (and possibly joy) of your buyers.

Once you cycle through an Android device or two, go to the oldest iPhone. Testing on the least sophisticated devices is essential as consumers hold onto their phones for longer. The oldest phone in the store is probably the most common among your shoppers.

After Cycling through your website, reach out to a top competitor. What is this site like on a mobile device? Does it provide a different experience (i.e. better) from the desktop? Does it take advantage of smartphone features like camera or location information? Does it make checkout easier by integrating with Apple Pay or other hosted payment platforms?

Google is part of the shopping experience for 90 percent of your visitors. Paid and organic traffic, reviews, background information-Google plays an oversized role in your mobile shopper’s journey.

So it’s important to use Google’s tools to understand what works (and what doesn’t) with your site and your competitors.

Use Google Lighthouse to determine what Google algorithms like and dislike about your mobile site. Then run your competitors through the tool for the same reasons. Don’t just launch the homepage. Run one of the site search URLS along with the product page. Pay attention to the weaknesses and add them to the list of features, wishes.

See also how Google ranks your site based on mobile and desktop search results. Unbeknownst to many, ratings (and impressions and clicks) are different. I’ve seen mobile sites with double or triple organic search traffic in a certain category compared to desktop – and Vice versa. Review these metrics for your site in the search console, in performance and search results and compare devices.

Knowing the pain points of your mobile site, it’s time to make some important decisions.

Modern e-Commerce platforms offer adaptive mobile optimized templates. Some of them include tools to create customized responsive sites, in addition to templates.