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Some tap targets are too small for touch screens

What this means for your business

Some clickable buttons or links on your site are too small to tap accurately on a phone. Visitors who miss a small target and hit the wrong thing get frustrated — and small targets are nearly impossible for people with limited hand mobility.

How to fix it
Medium
30–60 minutes

  1. 1Touch targets are buttons, links, and form fields that visitors tap on a phone. Google requires each one to be at least 24×24 pixels and have enough space around it so tapping it doesn't accidentally hit a neighbouring element.
  2. 2The easiest fix is to increase padding on small buttons and links. Adding padding: 12px to a tiny button makes it much easier to tap without changing how it looks.
  3. 3Check navigation links, social icons, and "read more" links — these are the most common offenders. They often have no padding and are placed too close together.
  4. 4For icon-only buttons (close, search, hamburger menu), set a minimum width and height of 44px — that's Apple's recommended touch target size and a safe target.
  5. 5If your theme or page builder controls the button styles, look for a padding or size setting in its design options rather than editing code.
  6. 6Test the fix by viewing the page on a real phone and trying to tap each button. If your finger can hit the right target without mis-tapping a neighbour, the size is good.

On WordPress

In Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS, add padding to links and buttons that feel too small. For Elementor or Divi, use each widget's padding settings to increase tap area without changing visual size. Kadence and GeneratePress themes expose button padding in their global style settings.

On Shopify

Go to Online Store → Themes → Customize and look for button style settings in the theme editor. Most modern Shopify themes have a global button padding control. For fine-grained control, edit your theme CSS file and increase padding on the button and nav-link selectors.

Pro tip: Padding is invisible to sighted users but makes a real difference on mobile. Increasing padding rather than font size or element size is the cleanest fix — the button looks identical on desktop but becomes much easier to tap on a phone.

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