Google Search Console "Text too small to read" Errors

[Digital_Reach]

What are the guidelines / best practices for clearing these errors?

Google has some pretty vague documentation on how to handle this sort of error.

User behavior metrics in GA are pretty much in line with desktop usage and don't show anything concerning

Any input is appreciated!

Thanks

m3F3uOI

[effectdigital]

Hard to tell what to do without seeing specifically where this error is coming up, but it usually has something to do with font sizes being too small on mobile devices. Mobiles have much more densely packed pixels on their screens (images are sharper, the pixels are smaller and more numerous). This means that 12 pixels (font-size) on desktop can look like 5 or 6 pixels on mobile devices (or even smaller)

This is why, with responsive design, many people don't specify a pixel-based font-size. They'll make the font size relative (rather than absolute) somehow, be that by calculating pixel width against screen width as some percentage, or by working with newer font-sizing specifications (there are many, and many ways to use them). It's all about inflating font-sizes on devices with more densely packed pixel screens, so that the fonts don't come out looking minuscule

Sometimes you can get errors where, even though the site's design is responsive, as someone was writing text in the CMS text editor - it appended styling info including the px font-size, which is then inlined (overruling all your perfectly thought out font-sizing CSS rules)

If it's not mobile related at all, it's likely that the font is just generally too small

[MrWhippy]

Hi Ben,

Have you tried increasing the font size? It may sound daft but normally the obvious is the simple answer.

Most CMS have an easy option to change the font size across the whole website and you can test it to make sure it does not have an adverse effect on larger screens.

The other point that springs to mind is to make sure you don't have any really small text on the page, check your footer for one, but also if the domain has spammy text hidden with really small text size that won't help.

It might help if you could share the text size you are using if none o the above help.

Steve