Tap target size on mobile: Crawl Audit check 104

Short answer: small links and buttons packed close together get mis-tapped, especially by people with larger fingers or shaky hands. Check 104 warns when tap targets are too small. It needs Google's PageSpeed test, so it runs in the full audit; in the free check, test this one yourself.

What Crawl Audit checks

• Full audit: Crawl Audit reads Lighthouse's accessibility audit "target-size", which tests WCAG 2.5.8, and warns if any target fails.
• Free check: there's no PageSpeed result, so the check passes with "rendered check needs PageSpeed".
• Until 6 October 2026 Crawl Audit read the older "tap targets" audit, which Lighthouse removed in version 12 (2024), so the check passed every site. That's now fixed.

The numbers

• WCAG 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), level AA: targets "at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels", with exceptions, such as enough spacing around a smaller target, or links inside a sentence.
• WCAG 2.5.5 Target Size (Enhanced), level AAA: "at least 44 by 44 CSS pixels".
• web.dev: "A minimum recommended touch target size is around 48 device independent pixels".
• Google's Material Design and Android: "at least 48 x 48dp", about 9mm. Apple's guidelines: 44 by 44 points.

Crawl Audit's advice follows WCAG: at least 24 by 24 pixels, or enough space that targets don't overlap. That's the minimum. Bigger is easier for everyone, so 44 to 48 pixels is a better goal.

How to fix it

• Give buttons and icon links padding, so the tappable area is at least 44 to 48 pixels even if the icon is smaller.
• Space links in menus and footers apart, so a finger can't land on two at once.
• Check on a real phone, or with Lighthouse's accessibility "target-size" audit in Chrome DevTools.

Sources

• W3C, Understanding 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum) and 2.5.5 Target Size (Enhanced), checked 6 October 2026.
• web.dev, Accessible tap targets; Material Design, Structure; Apple, Buttons.
• Lighthouse, changelog (12.0.0, 22 April 2024).