How to challenge mobile issues when your speed is slow and you get a Google penalty for slow site speed, here is the answer
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Table of contents
What is a mobile issue and how does it affect your webpage
This is an important subject that can not be ignored. Google searches by Mobile phones before it reaches your desktop. Therefore if it fails a mobile phone it fails Google and you get a bad mark and more importantly no first-page position.
How do you check for mobile issues?
Fortunately, Google in its wisdom has a website that you can use to check any page or post.
This is what should show up;
The site used is Mobile friendly and is available to anyone for free.
At Wealthy Affiliate, we also have a page checker that links with this and shows results.
When your page is bad what do you do?
I have found a few common problems that might help you out.
- Links to other pages to close together. They clash on a mobile screen.
- Images too large for a small device.
- Using a large header.
- column widths too wide
- Bad plugins
- Small writing should not be a problem but it is worth a look.
- Your theme is a problem.
- Widgets creating an issue
It is a matter of trial and error to get this right. It is extremely frustrating because it changes occasionally by a few percentage points going from bad to reasonable.
Trial and error is the answer. Do the easy bits first and then dig down.
Is it one site or many
This is one of the first steps because if it is a single site on your website you have a good starting point to make changes. However, if it is lots of pages or posts you go looking in macro centers like headers and widgets.
You can get away with an occasional post but when it is many it is a problem and needs to be addressed.
Popups and advertising
This is a common source of problems when you have either a lot of advertising or general popups. They take a lot of energy from your site and will affect your mobile suitability.
Then it is a balance of whether the advertising is better than the mobile result.
The plugin problem
Plugins can be the source of the problem and having too many is always a concern anyway. However, choosing your plugins is simply a trial and error basis. Delete and test until you find the culprit. Then reinstate to go back to the start just eliminating any errant devices.
It will adversely affect your SEO
As I have said Google frowns on bad mobile page interaction and will penalize you harshly.
You really do need to do a check on every post to make sure. You may do this on a weekly or monthly basis but the shorter time the better, particularly if you have found errors that need to be fixed.
Conclusion
This will occasionally have you pulling your hair out with frustration but it is necessary. There is no one answer to the problem. Simply work through them one by one until you find a solution.
