"Read More" Errors in PageSpeed Insights - It's Not You, It's Them(e)

byChezstar

418 followers

4 months ago

Hi one and all,

Recently, I fixed one of those annoying PageSpeed Insights errors that kept nagging me — and it turned out to be hiding in plain sight. If you’ve ever been flagged for “Links do not have descriptive text” and thought, “But I don’t do that!” this might be the answer. It’s a quick, simple fix that could boost your accessibility score and tidy up your site’s SEO at the same time.

When I first started my website, I read here at WA that Google doesn't like “Read More” or "Click Here" type links, as they don’t tell the reader enough. And as part of Google's Helpful Content Updates, this has become even more evident and important to adhere to.

Thankfully, I learned this early on, and all my links are more descriptive.

So when I kept getting an error in PageSpeed Insights flagging “Links do not have descriptive text”, I was somewhat confused, and even more so as each time it flagged my most recent posts.

I thought, Well, I could accept this on my earlier posts, back when I didn’t know better, but definitely not my recent ones!

What’s Google on about? Pffft… What does it know, lol. Then I’d get distracted—probably by the gazillion other errors—and I didn't address it.

Until recently. Turns out, it’s an incredibly simple fix.

I’ll add that I have seen a few other websites here at WA, whilst dropping in comments or just generally being nosy, and they also have “Read More” links: therefore, I imagine they’re also getting flagged for the same PSI error.

I'll explain the issue and show you how, in many cases, the error isn’t your fault—it’s your theme’s built-in behaviour.

And even better? Fixing it can be quite simple - for once!

The “Read More” Mystery

Themes often auto-generate “Read More” links on blog archive or category pages to encourage clicks. These links often just say “Read More”—and nothing else.

From a user perspective, they look harmless enough — but from Google’s accessibility and SEO viewpoint? Not so fine.

Why? Because “Read More” doesn’t tell users (or screen readers) what they’ll find if they click.

Accessibility guidelines — and Google’s Helpful Content updates — want link text to be descriptive, like:

• Read more about Pistachio Ice Cream
• Continue reading our review of waffle cone makers

And yet, in most cases, you didn’t even write those vague “Read More” links. Your theme did.

That’s why you can check every post on your site (trust me, I did) and still get penalised for it in PageSpeed Insights — the non-descriptive text is baked right into your theme’s output.

Why Google Cares

Google is championing accessibility. We've seen many of Google's Helpful Content updates over the past couple of years that make it clear - Google wants us to be more helpful and end-user oriented.

If your site is getting penalised for ambiguous link text, it's because users—especially those relying on screen readers—deserve more clarity.

The Fix? One Line of Code!

Here’s the good news, you don’t need a plugin or a website developer. Just a small PHP tweak can clear the error and keep PSI happy.

phpCopyEdit
function modify_read_more_link() {
    return '<a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
}
add_filter('the_content_more_link', 'modify_read_more_link');

This code will replace the generic “Read More” with a context-rich version that includes the post title.

What If the Title Is Too Long?

When I added this piece of code, I found that using the full post title was too long, and visually, it just didn't work, so I asked Chat if I could reduce it. Chat adapted the code to display only the first 6 words of the article title, see below (I guess if you wanted only 4 words of your article title, you could do that too):

phpCopyEdit
function custom_read_more_link($link) {
    global $post;
    $title = wp_strip_all_tags(get_the_title($post->ID));
    $words = explode(' ', $title);
    $short_title = implode(' ', array_slice($words, 0, 6));
    return '<a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink($post->ID) . '">' . esc_html($short_title) . '...</a>';
}
add_filter('the_content_more_link', 'custom_read_more_link');

Example of how this looks, instead of "Read More", you get:

What This Does

• Strips tags from the title
• Limits the link text to the first 6 words of the post title
• Adds an ellipsis (...) for readability
• Keeps your site more accessible and PSI-compliant

Why This Matters

Sometimes, it’s the small, overlooked tweaks that make the difference, and these small wins combined can make big performance improvements for our websites.

Fixing this issue:

• Improves accessibility scores
• Boosts your Lighthouse/PSI scores
• Keeps Google happy
• Helps readers know what they’re clicking into

Read More, Know More...

The PageSpeed Insights report can be overwhelming, especially for new website builders, but by taking each error and working through that, you can reduce those errors, increase your website scores, which in turn means increased traffic.

And just know that sometimes, the issue isn’t you—it’s the theme. With a little detective work and a single line of code, you can fix what looks like a complicated error.

Use your ChatGPT – copy the 'Links do not have descriptive text' error from PSI into your chat (your tech genius at your fingertips), and ask it for a code to fix it for you.

And the result? Increased points in accessibility and performance scores.

We all know, every point matters - Hope this helps.

Happy optimising!
Cherie 😁