Clickable elements too close together.

  • I received the following warning message “Clickable elements too close together” from Google Search Console for 11 pages out of 46 pages/posts on my website. The link provided here is to one of the affected pages. Google then further informed me that another 25 pages are mobile friendly and have no such issues. Google claimed these 11 pages were not mobile friendly but when I checked all of them using the Google Search Console TEST LIVE PAGE for mobile friendliness, the test result claimed that these 11 pages were all mobile friendly. I repeated the same test using https://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/mobile-friendliness and it also said all the 11 pages were mobile friendly with no such issues.

    I have been using the Studiopress Lifestyle Pro Theme since 2014 and this is the first time I am facing such an error and do not know how to resolve it because Google Search Console’s own in-build mobile friendly test contradicted their own findings and accusations.

    I believe the only possible Clickable elements being too close together would be the drop down menu and side bar menu but this does not explain why only some of the pages are affected as they are all located in the same menus.

    Would appreciate and be truly grateful for some much needed advice.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    I get that same email for every website I’ve done and, frankly, I have no idea why. You’re right that the mobile friendly test returns different results. This is probably best asked in one of the Google support forums.

    Thread Starter Daveyap

    (@daveyap)

    Hi, the problem is the Google Support Forums will give a standard unhelpful reply and then advise us to go back to the relevant WordPress forums for help because Google claimed it is theme settings and coding related and that Google is merely providing the alerts to the issues.

    I cut and paste one of their many standard replies to prove my point -> Recommended Answer
    Please check search console > your property> mobile usability ….
    There your sample url that have this issue should be shown …
    Also run those urls in Mobile friendly testing tool … If that’s showing no issue let the Google recrawl those pages and this issue should be removed

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Daveyap.
    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    What theme are you using? I suggest you contact them, as these items are theme controlled.

    Thread Starter Daveyap

    (@daveyap)

    It is the Studiopress Lifestyle Pro theme. It was purchased and installed on my behalf by someone whom I engaged to build my website for me when I was first starting out. Of course, I build my own website now but I couldn’t contact the theme developer and get support from them without paying for a new theme.

    This following quote below is taken directly off their website and it is for their paying customers.

    No Support

    Our support team cannot customize your Child Theme for you, nor can they create a new Child Theme. In addition, our support team does not get involved with writing CSS or PHP code.

    We also will not troubleshoot errors with 3rd-party Child Themes or 3rd-party Hosting platforms. This includes the 3rd-party themes that are sold via StudioPress, with a few exceptions — mostly, themes that were retired due to either the developer becoming a full-time employee or are no longer in business.

    We will sometimes refer users to other ways of getting assistance with the areas that we are not able to support. This may include various forums or contacting Developers available for hire.

    Thread Starter Daveyap

    (@daveyap)

    I am currently using the Divi theme from Elegant themes for my other websites. Although Elegant themes do not produce the best themes, their customer support is simply outstanding just like the customer support from Bluehost even though there are other way better Webhosting companies.

    By the way, I have deleted away my robots.txt file because GSC kept highlighting and subtly hinting to me that the issue had something to do with the robot.txt file preventing Google Bot from accessing my css file and thereby giving rise to this issue.

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Daveyap.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Daveyap.
    Thread Starter Daveyap

    (@daveyap)

    Dear All, just to informed you that Google has validated all my affected pages and resolved the issue. So in my case, it was simply that my robots.txt file had prevented Google Bot from accessing my css files and other files deemed necessary for Google to determine if my website is mobile friendly. Strange though that this issue only surfaced now given that I have never meddled with or made any changes to my robots.txt file for this past few years. Am now wondering if any of my plugins tinkered with it recently after their recent regular updates.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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