New Mobile Issues: Google and Twenty Seventeen Theme

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2.9K followers

This was originally going to be a question but there was too much in it so I decided to make it into a Post. Google has sent me a report: "Search Console has identified that your site is affected by 3 new issues of type Mobile Usability."




According to the Google Console repot the issues reported seem to be "new" .. I was considering if this means "Mobile Usability" requirements have been recently inceased by Google.

To put this in context I am using Twenty Seventeen Theme. I understood this Theme is Mobile Friendly ... ie "responsive".

Googles first point: "text to small". I am using the defaut text size and this cannot be customised in Twenty Seventeen without a level of technical skills ... which I do not have.

Googles second point: "clickable elements". I am not sure what they mean .. if they are referring to menu spacing etc then that is under the control of the Theme. If it is "links" in my blog posts then I can space them out more.

Googles third point: "content wider than the theme". As far as I understand this is under the control of the Theme.

So the questions becomes:

  • Has the "Mobile Usability" algorithm on Coogle changed recently?
  • Are the Twenty Seventeen theme issues easily fixed or should I change themes?
  • Perhaps some older themes including Twenty Seventeen are best no longer used by not so technical people?

If is seems that Twenty Seventeen is no longer the solution for my website I will most likely move to Twenty Nineteen which I am already familar with. I do not want a long learning curve with a new Theme and, from past (limited) experience, I have spent hours on new themes to then find that they do not work for my purpose and I then need to try another one.

And as a final point, this website is starting to have increased traffic. It backs up the marketing of a physical business which we are starting to expand around the country. 12 months ago the Google issues would not have been important but now they are.

Any constructive comments or discussion on this post is welcome.

Cheers, William B.

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Recent Comments

6

I had the same problem William. Google informed me of the very same 3 issues.

so...

First I followed Marion's training on using css code to change the font size site wide. Very simple and no plug-in required. I changed the default 18 font to a 20 font. Next, My custom logo was too wide to display on mobile. So I switched to another theme (Allium) and used the default size for the logo and checked to make sure it displays properly on my device. As far as the "clickable elements too close," when I switched themes that problem seemed to resolve itself.

I went back to google console to validate fixes and all 3 passed.

I hope this was helpful.

Cheers, Brad


Thanks Brad ... I prefer not to use plugins ... seems like changing themes is the best alternative. Thank you for your input. Cheers, William.

Thank you very much for sharing.
Joseph

Thank you for your comment Joseph. Cheers, William.

hi

I had the same issues and could not fix it. I have installed the amp plugin for the mobile and it works well.
I have no more issues with Google.

One more thing if you want to change the size and font install google fonts it is great.

Cheers Sylvia

Thanks so much Sylvia .. I will try those options. Cheers, William.

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