I’ve been blogging since 2013 and I feel pretty confident that my blogging knowledge is at a good level. Especially since I like to keep myself updated on new changes, what’s working etc.
However, the truth is no matter how long you’ve been doing something, things can still surprise you! Which is what happened to me recently, when something I was sure about… turned out to be not quite right.
So, since I made this discovery, I thought I would share it with all of you. It might be that I’m the only one who didn’t know this, but in case I’m not, I thought it prudent to pass on the information.
A quick note: Rather than resurrect my Blogger Series posts on Thursdays again, I will just be adding new ones as I see fit into my Friday Schedule.
What does Mobile-Friendly mean?
As technology changes, so does our behaviours. Mobile phones, tablets and the likes are now being used more and more to do things online.
So having a website/blog that is “mobile-friendly” is essential.
Mobile-friendly just means that the page is set up so that when viewed on different devices, it is readable, workable and easy to navigate.
Come on, we’ve all been on a website that wasn’t mobile-friendly and you had to constantly scroll left and right to read anything or pinch and stretch to make the text big enough to even read.
No-one… and I mean NO-ONE spends more than a cursory moment on websites like that and even then, I’m being generous. Because in truth, if we saw that and it wasn’t urgent, we wouldn’t give those websites the time of day.
NB: since this blog is a WordPress blog, I will be discussing mobile-friendly in terms of WordPress websites.
But WordPress is already Mobile-Friendly
Yes…and no.
WordPress has been designed to function on multiple devices and so I (apparently wrongly) assumed that my blog was automatically mobile-friendly and in some ways it was.
If you viewed my blog via a mobile phone or tablet (and I did, many times), it certainly seemed mobile-friendly. Everything was stacked nicely and you didn’t have to scroll left and right to read my posts.
The text size seemed easy enough to read, pictures fit within the screen edges and all is right with the world!
Except…
A Mobile-Usability Error Message
So imagine my surprise when I kept getting email updates with error message via my Console* about “mobile usability issues.”
When I went into the issues, I found these issues even affected me with Google. Oooh, that’s not good! After all, we want our blogs to be found, right?
So, if my WordPress blog was automatically mobile-friendly, why was I receiving the above messages and why was Google penalising me in searches?
*A few people have asked me about Console so I’ll be doing a specific article on that shortly.
Mobile-Friendly Enabled
When I FINALLY took the time to read into my error messages about mobile-usability, I found that the mobile-friendly view my blog was currently showing wasn’t good enough for Google.
This may have been due to my theme and layout, but it was enough that it affected my blog with Google.
Not all themes are created equal. Some are not “responsive themes”. A responsive theme is one that changes slightly when viewed on a mobile device. This allows important details to be read on the reduced screen size.
Now a quick check of my monthly Console review shows that the majority of my readers view this blog on a desktop computer rather than a mobile device, but I don’t want ANYONE struggling to enjoy my blog.
So I looked into how to make it Mobile-Friendly so that Google didn’t hate me.
How To Enable Mobile-Friendly
Since I didn’t want to change my theme (yet) I thought I’d look into another way to enable mobile-friendly viewing.
Log into your WordPress website and you will have the Dashboard sidebar on the left. Scroll down until you reach the bottom where there should be WP Admin.
When you click this, you will go into the Admin dashboard, with yet another sidebar menu down the left-hand side. Scroll down until you reach Appearance.
This will open the appearance option and give you the following options. From these, select Mobile.
You will finally be in the correct place to see…this 🠗
Now, while the above screenshot states my theme is already “mobile-friendly” the Enable Mobile Theme was not selected. So I selected it.
My error was assuming that just because it was mobile-friendly, that it was enabled.
Now my mobile-version of my blog does look different, and to be frank, not as pretty as it used to. However, it is DEFINITELY better for navigating and clicking. So overall, I’m happy with it.
As I said earlier, you may already have this enabled, you may already know about this but for anyone who didn’t, I hope this information helped.
Happy writing
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Thanks Ari. These posts are so helpful. 💜💜💜
Glad they help, Lorraine 🙂
Thanks, Ari. This article was enormously helpful. I didn’t realize that I wasn’t mobile friendly either, but your steps were clear and easy to follow!
Thanks Debra, I am glad you found it useful. I am pleased I shared it now as several people have told me they weren’t aware and like me, weren’t set up mobile-friendly.
I always try and make the steps clear because I myself can get easily lost so I try and make things as simple as I would like them 🙂
Another one of your special tips and easy instructions! I’ll have a play. Thanks, Ari!
Aww thanks Lynne, glad you found it useful. I’m happy I shared it.
I was umming and ahhing about whether this was something really obvious that I just didn’t know but it seems I wasn’t the only one so I’m really glad I shared it! 🙂
It went down quite nicely on twitter too – I was surprised it was needed as well! Mine is certainly better now :>)
😀
Thank you, Ari! I had no idea about this 🙂
Awesome, glad you found it useful!
Hm, that explains why it looks a bit different on my phone now. Still, seo is powerful (though still a mystery!).
I know what you mean, no matter how much I learn about SEO it still feels partially elusive… like looking through fog.
Eek! Thanks! 🙂
Glad to be of help 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing, Ari! I didn’t know this. I followed your directions and saw that my blog, too, wasn’t mobile-friendly.
But I’ve already fixed that, thanks to you. ❤️
My pleasure, Obinna. Glad this article was of use 🙂
Always good to share knowledge like this even if it may seem like some people alredy know it. There’s always something that someone can learn 🙂 Sorry I haven’t emailed you back yet, it’s been very hectic over here. Hope you are well and enjoying podcasting. Will tune in now as I had a bit of trouble with my mobile data the last few days, lol. Take care and have a lovely weekend! ❤ 🙂
I have been surprised by how many people have informed me they didn’t know it. I’m glad I shared it now. See, no matter how long we blog, new things still surprise us.
Take your time emailing, I appreciate how hectic things are (hence the delay in replying to my comments).
Thank you, Ari! I didn’t know this either and have checked and fixed it for my blog too 😊.
So glad you found this useful, Kate. I am glad I shared it as several bloggers have informed me they didn’t know. 🙂
I didn’t know this!!!! Thank you for sharing. I haven’t look at my blog on my mobile in a while.
lol Hi BB, glad to know I’ve helped someone! I’m happy this post helped you.
This is a great help because I’m just getting back into writing more. I appreciate your detailed help. Thanks so much Have a happy peaceful Easter!
Hi Jane, thanks for your comment and I’m so glad you found it helpful. Happy writing!
Thanks. Have a great weekend, and happy writing!