Actual Webmastery Question - 'Viewport not set' fixed an 'overall solution' ?
 

OK, so my site is about 450 pages in total, no scripts and all done by hand from about 3 or 4 different templates that I coded myself and use and reuse dependant upon the page required.

So google has started whining at me and sending me emails about not being mobile compatible. from certain clickable elements being too close together on 5 certain pages, to 'viewport not set' and 'text to small' on 8 more...

Now onto my question. I fixed the 5 pages by slamming a space between the 'purchase' link and the 'preview' link. It looks shitty imho, but google is happy apparently. However, it doesn't seem to have an issue with the other 30 or so identical pages, where the links are all in exactly the same place as they always have been ! :helpme

So that brings me onto the remaining 'selected at random' 8 pages that don't have 'viewport set' and have text that's to small.

Point being that viewport is not set on any of the other 440 identically coded pages nor is the text any different size either ! Yet google seems happy with all the rest - Makes no sense.

It's hardly worth me hiring someone to fix these 8 pages, and likewise I could make the text bigger on these 8 'random pages' but its still gonna make the pages look shit ! So Im wondering if look into this viewport thing (Which I'll be honest, I don't really understand, nor really want to understand any more than 'put this bit of code in here' ) But will the viewport thing fix the text issue?

And why has it chosen these pages at random? I'll show below a screen grab of the issues I've fixed and then the 2 identical pages of identical links for the other two issues...

https://i.imgur.com/0Z93OaZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/t7gV20p.png

https://i.imgur.com/w5I0a5a.png

Anyhooo. What should I do to make google happy? And why do you think its just choosing pages at random to complain about? I mean, if this viewport is so important, why not complain about EVERY page on the site? It's not on any others either !

Any ideas / advice etc, gratefully listened too. :)

& Im Sorry this post isn't about poo... :(

setting the viewport makes the entire page look better for mobile, the easiest solution I found is to use a meta tag to set it:

<META NAME="viewport" CONTENT="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

you can change the 1 to different numbers and use decimals like .5 to size the mobile version to look how you want it... I use a similar no script template system and it works like a charm for me...

OK, so I add EXACTLY that at the top of the 8 pages listed? I'll give it a go :)

Any ideas why it's just THOSE 8 pages though? They seem randomly selected ?

And will this 'tag' sort out the 'font too small' error at the same time?

I appreciate your response though. Hopefully some others will weigh in with an opinion before I start making further changes :)

Stuff like this does my head in - I've always been a pornograher as opposed to a webmaster :(

It looks like you cunta4rd a viewport. Have a nice day!

what's the problem?

:) :) :)

OK, it doesn't look 'uniform' now like all the other pages that were EXACTLY the same, yet google did not find a problem with :)

Had to check my calendar and make sure it wasn't 2011...

Well like I said, I'm not a webmaster. I'm a pornographer. Questions arise (via emails from google) and I need to ask for solutions...

No shame in that :)

Thanks again - Ive given it a go...

Do now I just gotta wait :)

Also, im my opinion, its completely ballsed up how the site looks in mobile. It used to look 'ok' if a little small, but you could zoom in on it if you wanted. Now, its like you are just looking at the top left hand side of the logo, and you need to zoom out to be able to see the entire page !

Fucking joke ! Probably gonna just change it back now.

I would try starting with your original page, add the viewport meta, and start with a really low setting like .11 and see if it fits right with no scrolling/zooming... it should fit and look really small... if it does fit up the setting until you find one that looks good...


I had the same shit fits way back when I first started going mobile friendly but with some trial and error you should be able to get it sized right and get rid of the errors....

if you aren't already use googles test page to test/check your paqes... I have no clue why they hit some pages and not others...

Just because Google hasn't complained about all the other pages doesn't mean it is happy with them. It doesn't work like that. If you wait long enough, it will eventually complain about those too. It's just that it doesn't test your entire website all in one go.