Google Mobile Test Fail Because Blocking Or Cloaking GoogleBot

Nov 26, 2014 - 8:19 am 3 by

The other day, Google launched the mobile testing tool and since then, Google has found two common repetitive trends when webmasters are claiming the tool does not work right.

Google's John Mueller wrote on Google+ that typically when the tool gives back an error saying your page is not mobile friendly, and you know it is indeed mobile friendly, is when you are (a) blocking GoogleBot from specific resources or (b) cloaking GoogleBot. In both cases, even if your site is mobile friendly, since GoogleBot doesn't know, it will mark it as not mobile friendly.

John wrote more detail on Google+ to explain:

1. Too much blocked by robots.txt. Googlebot needs to be able to recognize the mobile-friendliness through crawling. If a JavaScript file that does a redirect is blocked, if a CSS file that's necessary for the mobile version of the page is blocked, or if you use separate URLs and block those, then Googlebot won't be able to see your mobile site. The Mobile-Friendly Test will hint at this, the Fetch and Render tool in Webmaster Tools will give you details. The PageSpeed Insights tool doesn't use the robots.txt, so it may look normal there. Don't disallow crawling of your site's CSS or JS files!

2. Cloaking to Googlebot. Cloaking has been in our Webmaster Guidelines for a long time, it causes all kinds of problems. Some sites try to recognize Googlebot by looking for "Googlebot" in the user-agent, and will then serve it a "Googlebot-version" of the page (which is often the desktop page). If Googlebot-smartphone crawls and sees the desktop page, the page won't be seen as being mobile-friendy. Fetch and Render in Webmaster Tools can help you recognize this. The PageSpeed Insights tool doesn't use the Googlebot user-agent. Don't cloak!

This is Google once again, asking you nicely, to stop blocking GoogleBot from crawling your CSS and JavaScript files.

GoogleBot Confused

Forum discussion at Google+.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Google

Official: Google Replaces Perspective Filter With Forums Filter

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Now Offers Additional Review After Appeal Is Denied

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Maps

EU Searchers Complaining About Google Maps Features Changes Related To DMA

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google

Google Showing Fewer Sitelinks Within Search

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:11 am
Previous Story: When Obama & I Became King Of The United States For The Day