CLS Guard Troubleshooting

This guide covers common issues specific to Sera CLS Guard and CLS Guard Pro.

CLS Score Not Improving

Check if CLS Guard is Active

1. View your page source (right-click > View Source)
2. Search for sera-cls-guard in the HTML
3. You should see a <style> tag with CLS Guard CSS rules
4. If not found, the plugin may not be loading on that page

Ad Network Conflicts

Some ad networks inject their own layout shift prevention:

• Google AdSense Auto Ads — May conflict with CLS Guard's ad pre-sizing. Try disabling CLS Guard's ad pre-sizing and let AdSense handle it, or vice versa.
• Ezoic — Has its own CLS optimization. Disable CLS Guard's ad features if using Ezoic.
• Mediavine — Generally compatible. If issues arise, add Mediavine's ad containers to CLS Guard's exclusion list.

Theme Conflicts

Some themes have built-in layout shift handling that may conflict:

1. Temporarily switch to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Four)
2. If CLS improves, your theme has conflicting CSS
3. Add the theme's CLS-related CSS selectors to CLS Guard's exclusion list

CLS Guard Pro Dashboard Shows No Data

Cause: The monitoring script has not collected enough data yet.

Fix:

1. Wait 24-48 hours for data collection
2. Visit several pages on your site to generate CLS data
3. Check that JavaScript is not being blocked by a caching plugin or CDN
4. Verify the monitoring script is loading (check browser console for sera-cls-pro requests)

Learning Mode Not Generating Fixes

Cause: Not enough layout shift events detected during the learning period.

Fix:

1. Extend the learning period (default: 7 days, try 14 days)
2. Ensure your site has real traffic during the learning period
3. Check that the pages being monitored actually have CLS issues
4. Try triggering CLS manually by loading pages with slow connections (Chrome DevTools > Network > Slow 3G)

Rescue Mode

If CLS Guard Pro's auto-generated fixes cause visual issues:

1. Add ?sera-rescue=1 to any page URL
2. This temporarily disables all CLS Guard Pro fixes
3. Go to CLS Guard Pro > Settings > Rescue Mode
4. Disable problematic fixes one at a time
5. Re-enable fixes that are not causing issues