Designed for mobile

Silktide loads each page on a simulated mobile device and checks whether it has been designed to work there at all - whether it adapts to a narrow screen or simply shows a shrunken desktop page.

Why this matters

More than half of web traffic is mobile, so a page that only works on desktop fails most of its audience at the first tap. Visitors faced with tiny text and endless pinch-zooming leave; search engines, which index the mobile version of pages first, rank the site accordingly.

This check catches the fundamental failure - a page with no mobile design at all - rather than polish issues. A passing page can still have smaller mobile problems, which other checks cover.

How to fix it

The durable fix is , so the same page adapts to any screen width. If your site predates responsive design, this usually means a rebuild or a new theme - most modern themes are responsive out of the box. Specifically:

Declare a mobile in every page's head:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Use flexible layouts and media queries so content reflows into a single column on narrow screens, rather than fixing the page at a desktop width.
Keep body text at a readable size on mobile - avoid designs that shrink the whole page to fit.
Test on a real phone or with your browser's device emulation, at widths down to around 320 pixels.

How Silktide tests this

Load the page on a simulated mobile device.
Check the page declares a usable viewport. A missing viewport, or one fixed wider than 480 pixels, fails the page - this is the bare minimum for mobile support.
Measure the visible text: if more than 35% of it renders at an illegible size (below 10 pixels after zoom), the page fails.
Check how far the page zooms out to fit the screen: a zoom below 60% of normal size means the page is effectively a desktop layout, and fails.
A page passes when it shows none of these problems. Silktide also reports how many pages are not designed for mobile over time.

Troubleshooting

My page looks fine on my phone

Some pages appear acceptable while still failing a signal above - for example, a viewport tag generated by a legacy tool with a fixed width. View the page source and check the <meta name="viewport"> tag matches the recommended form.

The check passes but my mobile experience is poor

Passing means the page meets the basic requirements, not that it is optimal. See the related checks for small text, small tap targets, and disabled zoom.