Viewport meta tag

What this check looks for

This check looks for a <meta name="viewport"> tag. Missing entirely, it fails — the page renders at desktop width on phones. Present but without width=device-width, it warns. Present and responsive but blocking zoom (user-scalable=no, user-scalable=0, or a maximum-scale at or below 1) warns as an accessibility issue. A responsive viewport that allows zooming passes.

Why it matters

Without a viewport meta tag, mobile browsers render the page at a fixed desktop-like width and then scale the whole thing down to fit the screen, producing tiny, unreadable text that forces visitors to pinch-zoom just to read a paragraph — a broken first impression that drives immediate bounces on the majority of web traffic, which is mobile. Google has indexed mobile-first for years, meaning the mobile rendering of your page is the version actually evaluated for ranking, so a missing or misconfigured viewport tag directly undermines how the page is assessed. Blocking zoom entirely is a separate but related problem: it fails basic accessibility for low-vision users, regardless of how well the rest of the responsive layout works.

How to fix it

Declare a standard responsive viewport that still allows zooming:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

Avoid adding user-scalable=no or a restrictive maximum-scale — some developers add these to prevent accidental zoom on form inputs, but it's a real accessibility regression for anyone who needs to zoom to read comfortably.