Mobile Usability Error : Affecting our Ranking

Sydney
#1

Hello,

We have been using the Sydney theme for a long time. I just got an email from Google that we have mobile usability issues on our website which is affecting our search engine ranking.

I have tried to fix the issue by updating the theme and all the plugins but it didn’t work. I also deactivated the plugins and re-run the test but again it is not the solution.

You can take a look at the mobile usability issues from the link below:

Google’s Tool: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly?hl=en

Our Website: https://rb.gy/yxxa2v

It gives the following errors:

1)Text too small to read
2)Clickable elements too close together

If you click on" View Details" on top of the page you can see the details of the error resources. Some of these were due to the plugins we use, but when we deactivate them and re-run the test, the number of errors decreases, but the mobile usability error stays still.

I have checked the HTML code and it seems okay; it has the “width=device-width, initial-scale=1” so it should scale the website to any device width I believe.

The mobile usability of our website was just fine before and we haven’t done any major changes to our website recently. Anyhow, we have created a “Childtheme” last month maybe the problem is due to lack of code on our child theme but I can’t diagnose if that is the problem by myself.

The other reason may be due to the WordPress version update to 5.5.3, this is on auto-update and I can not take it back to see if this update is the reason behind the mobile usability issue. If this is the reason you might want to update the theme as well.

The thing is when I open our website on different mobile devices, there are no visible mobile usability issues but the Google crawler rendering the page as broken on the screenshots, which you can see it on;

https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly?hl=en

Can you please help me solve this issue?

Best Regards,
Atinc

#2

Hi Atinc,

Thank you for raching out to us here.

Website rankings on search engines is out of the scope of the theme’s support service. If you would like to improve the rankings, you would do some additional adjustments by your own. Because it is specific to users need.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,
Kharis
aThemes Support

#3

Dear Kharis,

I am not requesting SEO service or help for ranking here.

Google says there is a mobile usability issue with our site which I believe is related to the theme or our child theme somehow.

#4

Hy Atinc

Just for info, I have 3 websites on Sydney theme, using Child theme, and I have been getting the same two messages from the begining (almost 2 years), so it is not a problem due the Wp update to 5.5.3 version.

Yesterday I got a message from Google Search Console on my mail, that the problems due Mobile usability (Text too small to read & Clickable elements too close togerther) have been resolved (for all 3sites).

I hope this helps you.

Best regards,
BR

#6

No. I have not done anything by myself, Google Search Console sent me a message that the problem has been resolved.

So thinking in that dirrection, that the problem was probably solved from Google, it could be, that the sydney theme code, in the aspect we are talking about, and the google algorithm parameter are not fully compatible. This does not mean, that neccessary the problem is with the Sydney Child theme it could be just compatibility problem.

I would love to help you with the advice to contact also someone from Google, but I do not have any experrience with them.

I also trully don`t have any idea what the problem could be.

I have also noticed (in Google Lighthouse Diagnostics), that there is an “Image elements do not have explicit width and height” problem with lazyload, so on my site it could be a plugin conflict impacting on the site also.

Best regards,
BR