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Megan663

: Does button size affect Google ranking? Recently I was told that button sizes are important for SEO. Google recommends that buttons should be 48px tall. https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/SizeTapTargetsAppropriat

@Megan663

Posted in: #Google #GoogleSearch #SearchEngines #Seo

Recently I was told that button sizes are important for SEO.

Google recommends that buttons should be 48px tall.
developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/SizeTapTargetsAppropriately
Google provides a lot of recommendations for good user experience.

But I think there is a misconception between what Google recommends for users and what is good for Google rankings.

Do button sizes really affect SEO?

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@Lengel546

Button size can affect the usability of the website. Meaning, if the button is too small, users won't love to stay longer on your site, leading to a higher bounce rate. Google might consider that the user wasn't able to find what he is looking for on the website. This is just one of the factors.

Just remember that your site must be able to pass Google's mobile-friendliness (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/). Google has confirmed it as one of the ranking factors.

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@Debbie626

Button size doesn't matter but the margins around them, AKA how far they are away from other tap targets does.

How much does it matter? Not much. We have various warns about this too for a couple widgets, but frankly it's fine, and we are not gonna fix it. Still ranks, still get the mobile tag.

Now if your whole template was full of these, it would be different and worth fixing to make a good UX. It would have a very small effect on SEO too, but not much. Instead, Google primarily bases their mobile flag from viewport scaling and font size.

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@Shakeerah822

I think it's important to clarify context. As suggested in comments, the linked article refers to tap-targets on mobile/touch devices...


roughly 7mm, or 48 CSS pixels on a site with a properly-set mobile viewport.


"48 CSS pixels ... with a properly-set mobile viewport" does not necessarily mean 48 literal screen pixels, since a "CSS pixel" is relative to the viewport. The easy to measure physical metric here is roughly 7mm.

If tap-targets are considered too small then your mobile-experience rating is going to be lower and Google might not give you the "Mobile-friendly" badge in the mobile SERPs. Mobile "friendliness" is supposedly a metric that Google now uses as a ranking factor in mobile SERPs (one of many), but it could also affect click-through rates if you don't have the visible "mobile-friendly" badge.

So, yes button size can affect mobile SEO. How much it affects SEO is another matter.

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@Tiffany637

The downside of Google is you can never now for sure because they like their secrets, and the size of the operation makes it difficult to be sure that the system works even in the way they think it does. But in this case probably yes.

It is possible to get messages in webmaster tools along these lines:


Google systems have tested 137,000 pages from your site and found that
32% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these
44,100 pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience
your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by
Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked
appropriately for smartphone users.


I think that's about as clear as Google gets on any matter.

You can use their testing tool to check your site: www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/?url=www.bbc.co.uk

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