Every few weeks I find an email from the Google Search Console Team saying there are Mobile Usability issues are detected on my website. Typically they say my text is too small to read, clickable elements are too close together or my content is wider than a screen.
There’s a recommendation to fix those issues with a big blue button that says “Fix Mobile Usability Issues”.
So, what should you do if you get one of these emails? Don’t Panic. There is nothing to worry about. Let me explain.
1. Click the Fix Mobile Usability Issues button in the email
Log into Google Search Console and see the graph of any errors.
2. Roll over an Error detailed in the list and click it
This will let you see which pages are causing issues. Click the “Validate Fix button”.
3. Repeat the process for each error
Validate Fix each one. Google Search Console will run a quick initial validation and then let you move forward.
You will receive an email from Google to let you know that they have begun validating the fix, and when each validation is complete send you another email with an update.
why did I get this error?
What’s wrong with your website? Probably not much, which is why nothing was actually fixed. These errors can occur if the page hasn’t fully rendered before Google finishes its crawl of the website. So it is a good idea to just validate the fix and move on.
What if I got a different error?
Another common email I have seen from GSC for Squarespace websites is “Coverage issues detected: Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt.” This is particularly frustrating because it happens when a page is available for indexing but there is a rule in Squarespace that says not to crawl it, so you simply need to ignore these emails.
You can learn more about this in Squarespace’s help document on the subject: Understanding Google SEO emails and console errors and if you are super detailed you can read the full robots.txt expanation.
If you need help, simply take a few screen shots and reach out to Squarespace Support. They are your best option for support with these types of technical questions as they have the most updated information.