"Clickable elements too close together" - but it's not!

[Hanuman]

Like clockwork, I got this error from the search console once again for one of my newer websites. Typically, I would just click on 'Validate fix' and it will go away. Because this issue does not really exist. My content is nicely spaced out and uses Astra theme which is like what many of you must be using too.

But this time, I am not able to validate it. It keeps telling me that the issue persists, when IRL it does not. what do I do?

 

[DarkRed]

I think it depends on how it is spaced out. it may look good on the screen but they may be super close when you try to click.

Basically the spacing needs to be done with css Margin and not Padding when it comes to <a> tags.

Check that to make sure

 

[ToffeeLa]

Hopefully you are positive that there is no mistake from your side (custom css rules, for example).

If that is the case I would ignore it until you get another notification for the same site (in other words, the pages affected are expanding) or it goes away. Frequently (100% of the time in my experience) it is caused by the spider failing to load the css (or js or both) files. I used to check the sites when I got the notification. These days I don't even bother.

 

[Hanuman]

I think it depends on how it is spaced out. it may look good on the screen but they may be super close when you try to click.

Basically the spacing needs to be done with css Margin and not Padding when it comes to <a> tags.

Check that to make sure

Thank you very much. It was indeed to do with a bunch of <a> tags listed one below another. I added a margin within the <li> and the Validation has now started successfully.

 

[illmasterj]

In my experience this is due to CSS or JS files not loading (not enough crawl budget), and in basic HTML the elements are too close. When Googlebot loads them correctly, this is resolved.

If you want to sort it once and for all, play around with how the site works/renders without CSS/JS.

What I have noticed is that it can cause issues with indexing new content. I guess the concern is that it could get lumped in with a core update and some point and you're on the shit list until the next one rolls around.

I used to be concerned about it, but nowadays it seems to sort itself out within 6 weeks.

Edit: I see @ToffeeLa already wrote this!

 

[Ryuzaki]

What I have noticed is that it can cause issues with indexing new content. I guess the concern is that it could get lumped in with a core update and some point and you're on the shit list until the next one rolls around.

I don't want to discount what you're saying, but I want to add something I recall reading by John Mueller when this topic kept coming up. Because the fact is their mobile responsiveness test has been broken for like 5 years at least and they have no interest in fixing it. So the question to John became "well, is it hurting us?" and his answer was, and I paraphrase, "No, we have our own internal test that isn't broken."

 

[illmasterj]

I don't want to discount what you're saying, but I want to add something I recall reading by John Mueller when this topic kept coming up. Because the fact is their mobile responsiveness test has been broken for like 5 years at least and they have no interest in fixing it. So the question to John became "well, is it hurting us?" and his answer was, and I paraphrase, "No, we have our own internal test that isn't broken."

All I can say is, when this was triggered in GSC, those specific pages refused to index. The day the 'fixes' were validated, they indexed and ranked on page 1.

 

[wikibum]

I literally just got this same error. Its really annoying because THERE ARE NO ISSUES. I checked on multiple browsers to confirm. Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Clicked on "Test Live Page". I got all green, so I clicked on validate fix. It says "Validation started".

Last time this happened, they said it was fixed and all good.

My question is. Do you think Google has a "response rate" timer. Like, if you fix things and validate it quickly (or at least quicker than your competition) - you get some sort of bonus points? I doubt this is the case right now, but I am pretty sure they will be doing something like that in the future. idk