Mobile Compatibility

I decided to check my main web site, this one, for mobile compatibility, ie with smaller devices – phones and tablets. Since it is using the latest version of WordPress, I was pretty sure that it would pass with flying colours, but it failed Google’s mobile compatibility test miserably. In my case, the problem lies with the theme apparently.

Why did I check its mobile compatibility in the first place?

Because I had read an announcement by Google, that mobile compatibility would soon be one of its metrics in judging rank on their search engine.

Search for Google mobile compatibility test, then enter your URL to see whether you pass in seconds.

A solution that it recommended in my case, was to install the Jetpack plugin and turn on mobile mode. I did that, reran the check and passed.

Jetpack comes free bundled with thirty-odd plugins, so you will have to deactivate what you don’t need, but it is easy to do. I like it, because I had a lot of overlap with my existing plugins, which I was then able to delete. Hopefully, that will make my site a little faster as well.

Look for Jetpack and its mobile compatibility plugin from within WordPress, where you normally import new plugins.

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Kobo has banned one of my books from its shelves for ‘illegal activity’! I have no idea what this means and hope to hear back from them soon, especially since the book in question is the second of five in the ‘Behind The Smile’ series. It is odd, because Lulu banned volumes four and five for non-conforming covers, although they happily sell numbers one to three and all the covers are the same except the volume title. It makes you wonder whether a robot or a human is making these decisions. They test us with Captcha’s but we have no way of knowing about them.

Oh, and I lost my argument with Amazon over VAT, but then that was to be expected.

All the best,

by Owen

PS: Update: Kobo never did get back to me. What is it with these arrogant American companies?

The Welsh Novelist With 1,000 Books