Mobile fix guide
Mobile Navigation Hides Crawlable Links
The mobile hamburger menu or hidden navigation may prevent search engines from discovering important links if they rely on JavaScript interaction to reveal them.
Issue ID: MOBILE-NAV-HIDES-001
Severity: moderate
Impact: Med
Effort: M
Use this article when
- You need deeper remediation guidance than the issue card can show.
- You want CMS-specific steps before handing the fix to a developer.
- You want a repeatable re-check path after shipping the change.
What this issue is
The mobile hamburger menu or hidden navigation may prevent search engines from discovering important links if they rely on JavaScript interaction to reveal them.
Why it matters
The mobile hamburger menu or hidden navigation may prevent search engines from discovering important links if they rely on JavaScript interaction to reveal them. This affects usability on phones, which is where most local-business traffic now happens.
How we detect it
- FreeSiteAudit flags this issue when the rule for MOBILE-NAV-HIDES-001 fails and the page evidence points to Dom body.
- You can usually confirm this by checking the page source or the relevant page settings inside your CMS.
Evidence examples
Check the affected page source, rendered output, or relevant CMS setting to confirm the missing or incorrect element.
How to fix it
- 1Ensure hidden navigation links are still in the HTML DOM (not loaded via JS on click)
- 2Use CSS to hide/show navigation rather than inserting links via JavaScript
- 3Test with Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to confirm link discoverability
How to re-check it
- Disable JavaScript and confirm all navigation links exist in the HTML source
Related tools
This issue is best verified with the full FreeSiteAudit crawl rather than a single-point mini tool.