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My site (https://www.affordableblindskc.com/) has a Layerslider slider on its front page. I just started getting a Google Mobile Usability error on the site (see attachment). When I remove the Layerslider from the front page, the Google Mobile Usability error disappears. Is this a general problem with Layerslider?
Using Layerslider 7.5.0 on Wordpress 6.0.2, theme Divi Version: 4.10.7
Hi James,
Thank you for getting in touch with us. My name is John, and I'm happy to assist you today. I appreciate your patience while we've been working towards your ticket.
You can safely ignore these messages. These are just general recommendations and not actual errors.
The "Clickable elements too close together" means that some buttons are so near each other on smaller screens that it might be impossible for visitors to touch them with their fingers without accidentally touching neighboring elements. You can visit your site on mobile and judge whether it's the case or not. I'd call it a false positive detection. Google may mean the floating contact bubble on the lower right corner, which might be on top of another clickable element.
The "Content wider than screen" message would mean that something on your website makes it scrollable horizontally, which is not the case. It's likely a false positive due to the fact that the website layout can shift during page load.
Automated and synthetic tests aren't perfect, and they are usually not that reliable when it comes to highly dynamic content with changing layouts and animations.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team
I'd done some testing on mobile myself, and you're correct that this is flagging a non-existent problem. However, as I understand it, Google takes into account this usability rating when ranking pages in search. So if we ignore it, we may get downgraded by Google.
As far as I can tell, this is something new from Google. We've had Layerslider on the site for years, and it never showed as a problem. It sounds like Google instituted some new BS test and will de-rank anyone that doesn't jump to it.
Your page rank is calculated from an endless list of different factors. There's no perfect score, and it's impossible to max these out. The usability score is just one of many, and it probably has no discernible effect on your total rank. I wouldn't worry about it, and we can't change how Google evaluates these tests anyway. Content is king. The main driver in search results remains how relevant your website is to the search terms.
Best Regards,
John | Kreatura Dev Team