Why people leave your site on mobile, and how to fix it

The scene is always the same: the owner looks at the new site on a big office monitor and is happy. Meanwhile their potential customer is sitting on a bus, the mobile internet barely works and the site is still loading. A few seconds later they go back and open a competitor's link.

Here are the most common reasons this happens.

1. The site loads slowly

Google measures speed with three metrics, together called Core Web Vitals. A “good” result means:

• LCP: the page's main element appears within 2.5 seconds;
• INP: the site responds to a tap within 200 milliseconds;
• CLS: elements barely “jump” out of place while loading (less than 0.1).

The most common culprits: multi-megabyte photos uploaded straight from the camera, dozens of extra plugins, heavy sliders and fonts. Georgian web fonts are often large, so load only the weights you actually use. Use WebP or AVIF for photos, at exactly the size shown on screen.

2. Buttons are small and the text is thin

A finger isn't a mouse. Buttons and links should be big enough (around 44–48 pixels) and shouldn't touch each other. Body text shouldn't be smaller than 16 pixels; at small sizes Georgian letters are especially hard to read.

3. A form nobody finishes

Every extra field loses you a few people. Do you really need a company name, job title and address at first contact? Often a name and phone number are enough. Give the phone field type="tel" so the user gets the number keyboard.

4. Full-screen pop-ups

The visitor has only just arrived, hasn't seen anything yet, and a “Subscribe to our news” window already covers the screen. On mobile it's even hard to close. Google rates intrusive pop-ups like these negatively, and visitors simply leave the site. If the offer is essential, show it later and on a small part of the screen.

5. Contact details are hard to reach

Someone on a phone often wants one thing: to call or message you. Tapping the phone number should place a call, a WhatsApp or Viber link should open the chat directly, and the address should open on a map. And all of this should be easy to see, not in the footer at the bottom of the page.

A five-minute test you can run today

• turn off Wi-Fi and open the site on mobile internet;
• try the main action with one hand: ordering, filling in a form, calling;
• check the site in PageSpeed Insights, on the mobile tab;
• ask an older family member to find your phone number on the site, and notice how long it takes.

Even the best design can't work if people leave the site before they see it. Speed is part of design.

Want us to run this check on your site? Write to us and you'll get a free audit within one business day.