Your firm website on the smartphone: what clients need on the go

Why the smartphone comes first

Local searches such as “Notar in der Nähe” (notary near me), “Scheidungsanwalt Graz” (divorce lawyer Graz) or “Steuerberater Köln Ehrenfeld” (tax adviser Cologne Ehrenfeld) very often happen on the go. Someone holding a dismissal letter or a letter from the tax office reaches for their phone, not their laptop. How high the share is for you can be seen in your own statistics or in Google Search Console with the device filter. For many firms, a large share of visits comes from smartphones.

Then there is the search engine itself. Google works with mobile-first indexing: for indexing and ranking, Google uses the mobile version of a page, fetched with the smartphone crawler. Content, headings, image descriptions and structured data that only appear in the desktop view may not be seen by Google. The mobile view is therefore not a stripped-down side version but the main version of your website.

Tap to call and tap for directions

On a smartphone, the website is often just the short route to the phone. Anyone who wants to call should not have to copy down or memorise the number. That sounds obvious, but it fails surprisingly often on details.

• Phone number as a link: every number on the website is a call link in international format, i.e. with +43 or +49. That way it also works for clients with a foreign mobile contract.
• No numbers as images: a phone number in a graphic can neither be tapped nor copied, and search engines cannot read it.
• Address with a map link: tapping the address opens navigation. Add what helps on site: staircase, floor, doorbell, parking, nearest stop.
• Email as a link: a tappable address is more convenient than a form when someone just wants to move an appointment.
• State when you are available: next to the number, say when someone answers. A call into the void at 6 pm is more frustrating than a clear note on telephone hours.

Be careful with messenger buttons. A link to WhatsApp is quickly added, but client matters do not belong in a messenger without careful thought. The duty of confidentiality and data protection apply to the first contact too. If you offer a messenger, do so with a clear note that no documents or case details should be sent there.

Readable text and buttons that are easy to hit

On a phone, people operate with their thumb and often read while walking. Text that is too small, contrast that is too pale and links crowded together make any page hard work. The following values have proved themselves.

Good readability is also part of accessibility. Which requirements apply and to whom the accessibility acts in Germany and Austria apply is explained in the guide to the accessible firm website.

The menu on the smartphone

On the desktop, a menu bar with seven items fits; on the phone it folds away behind a menu icon. The fewer the items, the faster visitors find what they are looking for. A firm usually manages with five or six main items: practice areas, team, guides or news, contact, and careers if needed.

The legal notice (Impressum) must be easily recognisable and directly accessible on the phone too, in Austria under § 5 ECG and § 25 MedienG, in Germany under § 5 DDG. A link in the footer that appears on every page is enough. Which details your profession needs is set out, for example, in the guides to the mandatory information for lawyers in Austria or for tax advisers in Germany.

Forms and the contact button

A contact form that looks harmless on the desktop quickly becomes a hurdle on the phone. Every field means typing on a small keyboard. Only ask for what you really need for the first reply.

A permanently visible contact button at the bottom of the screen, for example “Call” and “Request an appointment”, makes sense on firm websites. But it must not cover the content or sit on top of the footer and legal notice. Pop-ups that fill the entire screen on opening are a different matter: Google advises against such intrusive interstitials, and visitors usually close them unread. If you allocate appointments online, the guide to online appointments describes how to make this work smoothly on the phone; what the contact page as a whole should look like is covered in the guide to the contact page.

PDFs or pages?

Many firms put checklists, information sheets, fee information or power of attorney templates online as PDFs. On a phone, a PDF is tedious: it opens in a separate app, the text is tiny, and you have to zoom and scroll sideways. Content that people are meant to read therefore belongs on the website as a normal page. That also helps with Google, because a page with headings and links is easier to understand.

• As a page: checklists for the first meeting, document lists for the tax return, how a mediation works, information on costs and fees.
• Additionally as a PDF where useful: forms to print and sign, powers of attorney, information sheets that clients want to file.
• Tables: show wide tables, such as deadlines or fees, as a list on the phone or make them scroll sideways without the whole page shifting.

Testing on real devices

The browser's developer tools simulate a smartphone quite well, but they do not replace a test on a real device. Only in your hand do you notice whether your thumb reaches the menu, whether the text is readable in the sun and whether the page loads quickly over mobile data. How fast your page really is is covered in the guide to page speed for firm websites.

Also check how your firm looks on the phone before anyone clicks: page titles and descriptions wrap differently in mobile search results than on the desktop. With the Google preview you can see both views side by side.