How to Fix Content Wider Than Screen Error – Mobile Usability Issue

If you’ve been noticing an error message called Content Wider Than Screen in your Google search console dashboard, and looking for the exact process to fix this issue, you have come to the right place. In this post, I will show the step-by-step process to fix this issue. 

Google’s Page Experience Update is set to change the way we think about website design and user experience. The update will mainly focus on mobile usability to rank websites higher in search results. This means that every webmaster needs to focus on this to make their sites more visible to the audience.

‘Content Wider Than Screen’ Error is also part of the Mobile usability issue and we must fix it in order to provide a good user experience and ultimately higher ranking on search engine result page. Now, you might be wondering how to fix ‘content wider than screen error’!  right? Don’t worry! By the end of this post, you will be able to fix this issue.

Related: How To Fix LCP Issue: Longer Than 4s (Desktop) and (Mobile)

What is Content Wider Than Screen Error?

The Content Wider Than Screen Error is an error that occurs when the content on a website is wider than the screen. This error can be caused by a variety of factors, but the most common reason is Non-responsive website design. This can be a problem if the website is being viewed on a smaller device, such as a phone or tablet. The content may also be too wide for the screen if the website is being viewed on a larger monitor. In either case, the result is the same: the viewer will see a horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the screen, which can be very annoying.

Also check: Complete Technical SEO Audit Checklist For Beginners

How to Fix Content Wider Than Screen Error?

Let’s fix the ‘Content wider than screen’ error step-by-step.

Identify the affected URLs

The first step in fixing this issue is to find the list of URLs having the issue. To do this, you simply need to go to your google webmaster dashboard and navigate to the Mobile Usability section under the Experience tab. 

Content wider than screen - identify the url

You will now have the list of pages that are affected by content wider than screen issue. 

Related: How to Fix ‘Text Too Small to Read’ Error

Set Viewport Meta Tag

Next, You need to size your content to the viewport. Viewports are the user’s visible area of a web page. They vary with the device and will be smaller on a mobile phone than on a computer screen. 

To make your website responsive to any devices, the viewport meta tag should be set to “width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0“. This tells the browser to render the page at the width of the device and to use a 1:1 ratio for scaling.

So, to match your web page to any screen automatically, Paste the following code to the Head section of your website. 

<meta name=” viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0″>

To perform this, you may need some technical knowledge, so you can ask your web developer to do so. Or if you want to do it yourself and if you are using WordPress, you can do it easily with the help of any Header code plugin. 

You may also like: How To Fix Clickable Elements Too Close Together Error? 

Size all images width to max 100%

Another cause of the ‘Content wider than screen’ issue is Images on your website. If you have not set the proper size for the media files you may get such issues. For example, if you have added an image with large width on your certain page, it will make users scroll horizontally.

This is very annoying for any users who come to read your content. They may leave your site immediately and this may cause a high bounce rate, which is very bad in eyes of Google.

So, to avoid this and make your website mobile-friendly as well as to solve the ‘content wider than screen’ issue, you have to paste the following code to your CSS file. 

img {

  max-width: 100%;

  display: block;

}

If you are WordPress user, you can do it easily from Appearance » Customize » Additional CSS.

how to fix content wider than screen - set max image width

This code will tell the browser not to stretch the image more than its actual size. 

Use Flexbox CSS Layout

Most web designers still use floating layout models while designing websites. This results in the user browsing web pages horizontally. And obviously, it will cause content wider than screen error. 

Flexbox CSS layout model on other hand a new method for structuring web pages. It is a more efficient way to lay out content than the traditional floated or inline-block methods. Flexbox can be used to create responsive designs that adapt to different screen sizes.

So, To fix the ‘content wider than screen’ issue, you may try switching to the Flexbox CSS model.

Might be useful for you: How To Fix Crawled – Currently Not Indexed Issue? 

Set Media Query Breakpoints

The next step to fix the content wider than screen error is to set breakpoints in your CSS media queries. Breakpoints will determine when the content should be rearranged to better fit the screen. You can set breakpoints using either min-width or max-width

For example, if you have a website that’s 960px wide, you would set a breakpoint at 640px. That way, when the screen size is less than 640px, the content will automatically adjust to fit.

This is a bit technical. If you already have knowledge about this, just do it. Otherwise please consult with your web designer or ask your designer colleagues to do it.

Check The Changes

Congratulations! You have just fixed the Content wider than screen error.  Now please verify that everything is working correctly. You may check it by browsing your site on your own devices or may ask your friends to check it on devices of different sizes. Or you can check using various mobile UI testing tools. 

Validate Fix

Finally, tell google that you have fixed the issue. To do so, Go to the search console > Mobile Usability and click on the Validate Fix button. 

Also check: How To Fix Discovered – Currently Not Indexed Issue?

Conclusion

One of the most important factors in improving mobile experience is responsiveness. A responsive website design ensures that your website looks great and functions well no matter what device your users are viewing it on. This is important for two reasons: first, it creates a better user experience (UX) for your visitors, and second, it can help improve your website’s search engine ranking. 

If you are having issues with your content appearing wider than your screen, there are a few things you can do to fix the problem. Set the viewport meta tag, optimize image width, use flexbox CSS layout, and set media query breakpoints. With a little bit of effort, you can have your website looking the way you want it in no time.

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Bibek Sapkota

Hi, I'm Bibek Sapkota, a full-time blogger and SEO specialist with over a decade of experience. My blog focuses on how-to guides for blogging, SEO strategies, and making money online. I'm passionate about sharing valuable insights and helping others succeed in the digital world.

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