search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Please post all questions and comments regarding Help & Manual 7 here.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
User avatar
Olivier Beltrami
Posts: 392
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2002 3:30 pm
Location: Nantes, France
Contact:

search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi,

I have taken the plunge and converted my documentation to responsive, with the goal of getting rid of the 2000+ "page is not mobile friendly" errors in my Google Search Console.

So far, all the pages pass the test (yeah!) except that Google now complains that the search.php file is not mobile friendly. And if I prevent that page from being indexed via the robots.txt file, then I get a warning that that page, which is referred to by other indexed pages, is blocked by robots.txt file. :frustration:

Is there a way to add code in the search.php file that will make Google happy ?
The specific issues are:

• Viewport not set
• Clickable elements too close together
• Text too small to read

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
https://www.qppstudio.net
Worldwide Public Holidays and Calendar Data
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

I'm afraid that you will have to live with that for the time being. However, the search page should definitely be excluded from search indexing because it is completely irrelevant for Google searches. Only your topics should be indexed. The contents, keyword index and search pages shouldn't. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Olivier Beltrami
Posts: 392
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2002 3:30 pm
Location: Nantes, France
Contact:

Re: search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi Tim,

Thank you.
All my efforts, I was hoping to see 0 errors and 0 warnings in my Search Console. :cry:
To quote the Stones, "You Can't Always Get What You Waaant!".

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
https://www.qppstudio.net
Worldwide Public Holidays and Calendar Data
User avatar
Olivier Beltrami
Posts: 392
Joined: Mon Jul 15, 2002 3:30 pm
Location: Nantes, France
Contact:

Re: search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hello again,

I have found the problem, and I am posting the solution here as this might affect many people who monitor the Google Search Console of their site to squash all "errors".

The problem is not in search.php, as the Google Console misleadingly states, but in the search_template.html that is loaded by that search.php file.

I am also using the stand-alone version of the ZOOM indexer, for my general website, and I noticed that in their latest version (8.0), the search_template.html file that they generate contains the line below, just under the title tag.

Code: Select all

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
Adding this to the H&M search_template.html file makes Google happy and no longer classifies part of your site as mobile un-friendly.

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
https://www.qppstudio.net
Worldwide Public Holidays and Calendar Data
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23155
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: search.php is not "mobile friendly"

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

Thanks for posting this! That tag isn't in the search page template because it's never displayed on its own, but always inside the main topic page inside another box. But if putting it in the template makes Google happy it definitely doesn't hurt. You can do it permanently by adding it to the search template in the skin. I'll update it in the next maintenance but it's not even a cosmetic issue and has zero practical consequences, so there's really no hurry. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Post Reply