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As you can see my last couple of threads, I am struggling with Google bots that decided that my website is not very indexable. I am trying to find where the problems are, and it looks that one of the biggest is my site has “mobile usability” problem. It’s different from AMP or being mobile friendly. When Google crawls my pages, it decides that they are 1) text too small to read, 2) clickable elements too close together. When I use “view tested page” on Google Search console, to see how Google bot smartphone sees my pages, they only show menu items, not the actual contents. The menu items are the list of hyperlinked text t that goes on horizontally. This is only with Google bot. If you simply type the URL my pages, you can see them with no problem. Only thing I can think of is the menu in your theme has some incompatibility issue with Google bot smartphone.
I cannot attach the screenshot of how Google bot smartphone looks my page, but let me know where to send it. It’s easier to see it.
Am I supposed to do something with menu to make it Google smart phone friendly? Thanks
Hey mfuji,
Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the link. I ran a Mobile-Friendly Test and see that the image of the page in the test is without css. When you click “view details” it shows that 26 css files were not loaded with a status of “Other error”.
I researched this and found other reports of this with other themes and the suggestion is to add this to your robots.txtUser-Agent: Googlebot Allow: .js Allow: .css User-Agent: Googlebot Allow: /wp-content/uploads/dynamic_avia/*.js Allow: /wp-content/uploads/dynamic_avia/*.cssI see that your robots.txt already has some statements and that should be enough, but please give this a try.
Best regards,
MikeOK thank you. I checked with the hosting service provider who said that my site doesn’t have robots.text.
There is some default setting, which doesn’t say much.
So I think I’d need to add a new robots.text by myself….do I just copy/paste what you wrote, save it as robots.text and upload it directly under pubic_html?Also, I get a whole bunch of image warnings from Google. I use full slider and gallery a lot, so am starting to feel that maybe avia Layout builder is not very compatible with Google bot for mobile. Are you hearing same concerns?
Thank you,
Hi,
I linked to your robots.txt below for you to see, right now it reads:User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.phpSo after adding the new lines it should look like this:
User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php User-agent: Googlebot Allow: .js Allow: .css Allow: /wp-content/uploads/dynamic_avia/*.js Allow: /wp-content/uploads/dynamic_avia/*.cssHere is an article about robots.txt
You should place it in your domain root, typically this is the directory WordPress is installed in.
After you add this try requesting that Google crawl it.Best regards,
MikeI think I was able to update the file. It shows exactly as you wrote.
I tested the page again, but it’s still showing the same issue. Maybe I should wait a little bit. Please keep this open for now, and I will get back to you on the result.So overall do you recommend continued use of Avia layout builder?
Hi,
Perhaps it will take a little time, we will keep this open.
Yes, I do recommend the Advanced Layout Builder, if the test tool loaded all of the resources as the tool linked below does, then the page should pass the test.Best regards,
MikeI have been monitoring GSC for more than a month, but the problem still persists. I still get
1) text too small to read,
2) clickable elements too close together
warnings and GSC refuses to index many of my pages.what else can I do?
This is other page that is disliked by Google bots.I think I mentioned earlier, but in the screenshot of Google tested page on GSC, menu bar disappeared. Instead it’s showing the menu as a text list with hyperlink. I think it’s considered “text too small to read etc,” but in the original page it’s just a menu bar, so there is nothing I can do.
Obviously, it’s just Google bots. If you check my pages on cell phones, the menu bar is properly displayed.
Any thoughts?
Thank you.
Hi,
Thank you for the feedback, this is a strange issue, so yes, I believe the two errors are due to the test not loading the CSS. I also believe that if you check your Google Webmaster account you will not be getting any errors for the same files from Google Bot, meaning that your site is indexing correctly, and as we know actual devices are loading the files.
I’m not sure why the test is not loading some of your css files, but I do see that you have a “mixed content” error which is not related to your css, but perhaps correcting it will help.
So this code tells the Browser or Google Bot, to try to get all files via HTTPS thus solving any “mixed content” errors.
Try adding this code to the end of your functions.php file in Appearance > Editor:function add_custom_meta(){ ?> <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="upgrade-insecure-requests"> <?php } add_action('wp_head', 'add_custom_meta', 1);If you prefer, we can add this for you if you include an admin login to your site in the Private Content area.
Best regards,
MikeThanks, so I added the code at the end of the function.php. I thought I did it correct, and actually Google bots started to recognize some of the troubled pages as “indexable” after I did it. But it wasn’t the end of the story…some other pages that were totally fine before the change suddenly became non live text-able (hence non index-able). According to GSC, it means “…cannot be shown in a live test, as these states are only shown when the user submitted the page using a sitemap, and sitemap information is not available in a live test.”
So I deleted the code.
Maybe you could try to add it in case I did something wrong? Thanks.
Also, Google bots does not like anything fancy that Avia builder provides: I stopped using slider, gallery, video etc. I am even refraining from using thumbnails because it often causes size problem with GSC. I am making new pages using almost text only. It should not how it’s supposed be, right?
Hi,
Thank you for the login and for the feedback, I tried disabling your “Dynamic Caching” in your “SG Optimizer” plugin and then retested the two links you posted above and both passed, please see the screenshots and links in Private Content area.
I then reenabled the setting so you can decide if you want this setting on or off.
I believe you will find with this setting off the issues with the menu and other builder elements in the “Mobile-Friendly Test” will be resolved.
If you try disabling your “Dynamic Caching” in your “SG Optimizer” plugin, please also click the “Purge SG Cache” button at the top of your admin page to clear the server cache.Best regards,
MikeOK thank you. I disabled dynamic caching, and most of the pages became indexable by Google bots. Do you recommend deactivating SG Optimizer altogether??
As I wrote earlier, Media elements of Avia layout builder seem to be particularly incompatible with Google bots. The pages with full slider, video and gallery are having trouble. It’s sad because I liked using them to make full, rich contents for desktop users. I no longer can do it.
Thank you for your help!!
Hi,
Thank you for the feedback, so the “SG Optimizer” plugin is for your site’s server-side object caching, while you are building your site you will want this off, but once you are done with the major page builds you may find this works well to speed up your site.As for the Media elements, such as the slider, with the SG Optimizer plugin off, are showing correctly in the page test.
So what do you mean by “incompatible with Google bots”?Best regards,
MikeOK I got it.
>So what do you mean by “incompatible with Google bots”?
This is what I have been talking about from the get-go. Maybe you can re-read my first thread. My pages look fine when you access them from your mobile device, and they pass mobile-friendly test. But in order for my pages to be indexed by Google, they need to pass the test by Google bots that actually crawl pages (at least that’s my understanding). When I “live test” my pages, Google bots return errors: 1) text too small to read, 2) clickable elements too close together.
In actual pages, texts are not too small and clickable elements are not too close. (As we have been seeing, everything looks just fine!) But when I check how bots see my pages, the menu bar is displayed as a list of texts with hyperlink. Which are kind of close to each other. If I can attach a file, I can send the screenshot how Google bots see my pages.
As a result, Google decides not index those pages.
After you took care of my setting and disabled SG Optimizer, many pages no longer showed 1) text too small to read, 2) clickable elements too close together, and became indexable. However, some still showed the same error. When I removed sliders, gallery and video function from those pages, the error messages finally disappeared and they became indexable.
From the get-go, this issue had nothing to do with how my pages are displayed in reality. It’s been the Google indexing problem. But it’s a huge issue, you know. If Google refuses to index a page, it virtually becomes non-existent, so there’s no point making it look nice….
Hi,
Thank you for the feedback. When you are testing your page with the “Live Test” in the Google Search Console > URL Inspection and you see the error “Page is not mobile friendly” this doesn’t mean that it will not be indexed.
On the URL Inspection page you should see this:
Now in my tests, if you run the same test a few times you will get different results:
I can not test your pages in my Google Search Console, because it only allows you to test your own domains, but note that the “Live Test” is a limited test which doesn’t load all resources available.
Now we know that the reason you are seeing the error “Page is not mobile friendly” is because the test didn’t load the css file to arrange the page correctly, and when the css file is loaded the test passes the page.
This is not the same as indexing your page, when google indexes your page it doesn’t limit the crawl in the same way. I don’t believe that reducing your pages to only the elements that will show in the “screenshot” of the “Live Test” is necessary for your site to be indexed.
While I want to help you with any issues with your site, this seems to be an issue with the test not giving a complete result by not loading the available resources for the page because it’s bandwidth is limited.Best regards,
MikeYeah so first of all, I wish if you guys have “attach file” function here. Attachments would have explained the issue 10 times better than me trying to explain using text only.
Yes I know exactly what you are talking about! I wasn’t really complaining to you, but more complaining to Google.
The pages I am “Live Testing” is the ones that are in “Crawl anomaly” category. In GSC, under “Coverage” there are “Error,” “Valiid” and “excluded.” Crawl anomaly is under “excluded” category.
Those pages are crawled by Google bots, but determined not indexeable.
” URL is not on Google
This page is not in the index, but not because of an error.”And if you take a close look at where the problems are, they are 1) text too small to read, 2) clickable elements too close together.
If you are right and Google is still indexing those pages despite “crawl anomaly” and says this URL is not on Google, I will just be really happy! But I just don’t want to take a risk because you never know with Google. So I am avoiding media tools for now, because crawl anomaly disappears when I stop using them.
Anyway, I was just telling you in case other users were in the same situation. This whole things started after Google announced that their primary crawling method will be smart phone moving forward, and also during the pandemic. I heard that Google made a lot of modification how it crawls sites in order to react to COVID-19. Everything was just fine until February this year.
Hi,
OK, well the “Crawl anomaly” is a different issue than the “text too small to read, & clickable elements too close together” error in the “live test” results.
“Crawl anomaly” typically is due to server speed at the time of the crawl, but it could be other issues like this.Best regards,
MikeI am just trying to explain what’s going on.
In your attachment, this user says “every page” faced crawl anomaly,
In my case, crawl anomaly occurs almost exclusively on pages with sliders, galleries, videos, thumbnails and things like that. Those pages are also considered “text too small to read, & clickable elements too close together.” You may say they are two different issues, but they are affecting the same pages. It’s hard to believe that it’s just a coincidence, especially when the problem goes away after I remove media elements.
Anyway, I am just trying to let you know what I am experiencing. I am not complaining to you. So please don’t be so defensive. I am not a technical savvy user AT ALL. I just want to focus on writing, but feel forced to do something to fix Google issues as the number of visitors are now less than half compare to pre-COIVD, pre-mobile crawling era (6 months ago). My web is an abysmal situation.
See how I rarely opened cases over the last few years? Everything was working fine. Now I am suddenly struggling in my battle against Google bots.
Please close the case.
- The topic ‘Menu bar incompatible with Google mobile indexing?’ is closed to new replies.