Mobile Optimization Checklist

Baseline Audit

    Run Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools with the Mobile preset and Slow 4G throttling against the top 10 landing pages by GA4 sessions. Save the JSON report — you'll compare LCP, INP, and CLS to PageSpeed Insights field data later in the run.

    Open Search Console → Core Web Vitals → Mobile. Lab data from Lighthouse and field data from CrUX often disagree; the Search Console mobile report is what affects rankings. Note any URL groups flagged Poor or Needs Improvement.

    Spot-check the homepage, top 3 conversion pages, and top 3 organic landing pages. Google retired the standalone Mobile-Friendly Test in late 2023 — use Search Console's URL Inspection tool and the rendered screenshot instead.

    Configure Screaming Frog with Googlebot Smartphone user agent and JavaScript rendering on. Look for parity issues — content that exists on desktop but not mobile, blocked resources, redirect chains. Mobile-first indexing means Google ranks based on the mobile version.

Content & Layout

    Hero images are typically the LCP element on mobile. Serve WebP or AVIF with srcset breakpoints at 360, 768, and 1200 px. Add fetchpriority="high" on the LCP image and lazy-load everything below the fold.

    Body text under 16px triggers iOS Safari auto-zoom on form focus and fails WCAG 2.1 readability guidance. Confirm line height around 1.5 and contrast ratio at least 4.5:1 against the background.

    Test on a 375x667 viewport (iPhone SE) — the smallest mainstream screen. The primary CTA should be visible without scrolling. Sticky headers eating 60+ pixels are a common culprit.

    Google's mobile usability guidance is 48x48 CSS pixels with at least 8px spacing between targets. Adjacent links in footer and navigation menus are the typical failure pattern.

Navigation & Forms

    Open and close the menu on Safari iOS, Chrome Android, and Samsung Internet. Watch for focus traps, scroll-lock issues, and the iOS bottom toolbar overlapping menu items. Confirm aria-expanded toggles correctly for screen readers.

    Set inputmode="search" so iOS shows the search keyboard. Confirm autocomplete suggestions don't push the submit button below the fold. Test that filter drawers don't trap scroll on the underlying page.

    Use type="email", type="tel", inputmode="numeric" for postal codes, and autocomplete tokens (given-name, family-name, email, tel, postal-code). Wrong input types are the single biggest mobile form-completion killer — users abandon when the wrong keyboard appears.

    Submit a real test lead on Safari iOS and Chrome Android. Confirm the lead lands in HubSpot or Salesforce with the correct UTM parameters, source-medium-campaign, and lifecycle stage. Verify the thank-you page conversion event fires in GA4.

Performance & Core Web Vitals

    Largest Contentful Paint over 2.5s on mobile is the most common Core Web Vitals failure. Preload the LCP image, defer non-critical JavaScript, and inline critical CSS. Confirm the fix in CrUX field data — lab improvements don't always show in field data for 28 days.

    Interaction to Next Paint replaced FID in March 2024. Long tasks from third-party scripts (chat widgets, A/B testing tools, marketing tags) are the typical culprits. Profile with the Performance panel and defer non-essential tags via consent-state gating in GTM.

    Cumulative Layout Shift over 0.1 mostly comes from images without explicit width/height, late-loading web fonts, and ad slots without reserved space. Set aspect-ratio CSS on media containers and use font-display: optional or swap with size-adjust descriptors.

    Open Google Tag Manager and review every tag firing on mobile. Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, and chat widgets commonly add 500ms+ to mobile load. Gate non-essential tags behind consent state and use Tag Sequencing to defer them past the load event.

Analytics & Reporting

    Open GA4 DebugView with the device on the same network. Confirm page_view, scroll, click, form_submit, and any custom conversion events fire on mobile. A common gotcha: enhanced measurement form_submit fires on email-blur rather than actual submit, inflating reported conversions.

    Build a GA4 exploration with Device Category as a dimension. A mobile conversion rate under 40% of desktop on the same campaigns usually indicates a mobile UX or tracking gap, not user intent. Segment by traffic source — paid social skews heavily mobile and distorts blended rates.

    Marketing ops lead reviews findings with the web dev team and files Jira tickets for any unresolved issues. Capture the audit summary and the next audit date — quarterly cadence is typical, monthly during active redesigns.

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