Sub-domain or sub-directory for mobile version
-
sub-domain or sub-directory for mobile version
advantages or dis-advangages?
-
Ok, in my opinion mobile website are not the actual part of the main website (mobile website do not have same status as blog) so it is intelligent to go with sub domain but always keep the visitor’s sensor on so if they are coming from smart phone or ipad it should open a mobile website for them but if they are coming from desktop or laptop in that case it should be the main website for web.
-
domain.mobi (Subdirectory)
Pros
- Carrier transcoding. Sprint PCS in the US and Vodaphone in the UK transcode (modify websites) that you load on your phone for the best experiences (although, it breaks some websites). These carriers assume .mobi is mobile-friendly and do not modify their content.
- .mobi means mobile-friendly and is best for search: Some search engines can be set to only search .mobi domains with the assumption that they're all mobile-friendly. Although, this area is very new and search engines can determine a mobile-friendly site via other methods, this is one area of speculation.
- Brandable. Some might say that .mobi is more brand-able than m.domain.com. For instance, it's easier to tell people to go to http://domain.mobi and build a campaign around it than http://m.domain.com.
- Separate control. This might be important for an agency who is building a mobile website for a client. If they wanted to purchase and host the domain names themselves, they can. This can speed up the process for getting a domain established for the mobile site.
Cons
- Opportunity for domain squatters. Several companies own their domain.com, but they don't always own the .net/.org variations. This could either be due to never having thought about it, lack of interest, or the .net/.org being owned by a domain squatter. The domain squatter also has the opportunity to purchase domain.mobi
- More effort to type. .mobi takes longer to type than .com thanks to the .com button on most smartphones. At the end of the day, a .mobi domain isn't needed much.
- New domain, no SEO juice. A .mobi domain would be treated as a new domain name and it wouldn't take any SEO from whatever current domain you have.
- Costs involved and inconvenience. The cost of a .mobi domain and added inconvenience for managing it may not make it worthwhile.
m.domain.com(Subdomain)
Pros
- Easier to access and maintain. The DNS is all stored under the same domain. No additional domain to purchase, set up, and manage.
- Easier to type on a phone. iPhone and Android on-screen keyboards include a .com button on the virtual keyboard.
- Keeps your brand in-tact. People already know domain.com is yours. Something like domain.mobimight confuse them.
- Free. Setting up a subdomain should be a simple process depending on the web host.
- Higher adoption in the US. Companies such as Yahoo, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Facebook have adopted this method.
- Support for multinational domains. Some companies such as Amazon have Amazon.com for their US presence and Amazon.co.uk for their UK presence. A .mobi site just comes in .mobi. I suppose you could have co.uk.amazon.mobi, but that sounds messy (and backwards). m.amazon.co.uk makes more sense.
- It's what Matt Cutts said. Matt, who works at Google and shares webmaster tips for best practices, suggested that m.domain.com will do the trick.
- _Cookie support. _This may be one of the greatest benefits of the m.domain.com method. Cookies, or temporary files on your computer used to store information, can be set for a domain and a certain subdomain. With domain.mobi, however, cookies cannot work across multiple domains. So, if you logged into a mobile website but needed to view the desktop website and wanted to switch to that mode, using m.domain.com would be best so you can stay logged in between both sites.
Cons
- Too ambiguous. Some would argue "m.domain.com" makes no sense and isn't intuitive for people looking for the mobile site.
- No carrier transcoding. Few phone carriers are transcoding websites so when someone access a site on their phone the website gets reduced in size so it loads faster. This could break some desktop websites and mobile sites. Only Sprint PCS in the US and Vodaphone in the UK are doing this that we've heard of. The work around is to manually register your mobile website as a mobile website with each carrier.
One question I often hear is which makes more sense for someone to type in, m.domain.com, or domain.mobi? My answer: if you want the mobile version, go to the desktop site and it should take you to the mobile version.
If in doubt, use m.domain.com and redirect the domain.mobi to m.domain.com.
This was the more common method of delivering a mobile optimized website before responsive design came along. You have a mobile site on a different sub-domain, such as m.bbc.co.uk, keeping all of your mobile content on different URLs.
The two most important points if you’re using this method are:
Use the rel=”alternate” tag pointing to the mobile URL on the desktop version of the page, helping Google find your mobile content.
Use the rel=”canonical” tag pointing to the desktop URL on the mobile version of the page, helping Google understand which version of the content is duplicated.
**At the last my suggestion is go with subdomain for mobile website. **
Let me know if you need more help.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Moving established :COM site to a .ART domain
Hi! We have an existing website that has a .com TLD with our brand name, which is completely unrelated to any of the terms we want to rank for except for the brand search of our company of course. We have an online shop and the .com site has been online for a good few years. The business activity is related to art, in fact some of our customers would search for "name of artists + art" and we appear in results. From what I have read, Google is not going to give better rankings for a .art domain name, but will the extension be counted as a potential keyword and relevancy to users searches based on example above? Does anyone have any experience with regards to this consideration? Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | bjs20100 -
Google AMP (accelerated mobile pages), can it be used for non-Google news and Ecommerce Websites?
Mozzers, I've been doing a lot of research on Google's new Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) https://moz.com/blog/accelerated-mobile-pages-whiteboard-friday. From what I'm seeing, these AMP version websites are only for Google News-worthy websites such as New York Times, Cosmopolitan, and the BuzzFeeds of the world. But what about Ecommerce websites like Ebay or Amazon? Will AMP versions of "scotch tape" via OfficeDepot work in the SERP's on non-Google News cards?
Algorithm Updates | | Shawn1240 -
Flat Structure URL vs Structured Sub-directory URL
We are finally taking our classifieds site forward and moving into a much improved URL structure, however, there is some disagreement over whether to go with a Flat URL structure or a structured sub-directory. I've browsed all of the posts and Q&A's for this going back to 2011, and still don't feel like I have a real answer. Has anyone tested this yet, or is there any consensus over ranking? I am in a disagreement with another SEO manager about this for our proposed URL structure redesign who is for it because it is what our competitors are doing. Our classifieds are geographically based, and we group by state, county, and city. Most of our traffic comes from state and county based searches. We also would like to integrate categories into the URL for some of the major search terms we see. The disagreement arises around how to structure the site. I prefer the logical sub-directory style: [sitename]/[category]/[state]/[county]/
Algorithm Updates | | newspore
mysite.com/for-sale/california/kern-county/
or
[sitename]/[category]/[county]-county-[stateabb]/
mysite.com/for-sale/kern-county-ca/ I don't mind the second, except for when you look at it in the context of the whole site: Geo Landing Pages:
mysite.com/california/
mysite.com/los-angeles-ca-90210/ Actual Search Pages:
mysite.com/for-sale/orange-ca/[filters] Detail Pages:
mysite.com/widget-type/cool-product-name/productid I want to make sure this flat structure performs better before sacrificing my analytics sanity (and ordered logic). Any case studies, tests or real data around this would be most helpful, someone at Moz must've tackled this by now!0 -
301'ing old (2000), high PR, high pages indexed domain
Hi, I have an old (2000), very high PR, 20M+ pages indexed by goog domain which... got adsense banned. The domain has taken a few hits over the years from penguin/panda, but come out pretty well compared to many competitors. The problem is it was adsense banned in the big adsense acct ban of 2012 for invalid activity. No, I still have no idea what the issue was. I'd like to start using a new domain if I can safely get goog to pass the PR & indexing love so I can run adsense & Adx. What are your initial thoughts? Am I out of my mind to try?
Algorithm Updates | | comfortsteve1 -
Choosing Domain Name
I am trying to choose between two domains:- Lets call them www.exampledeals.com www.examplediscountsforum.com While 1 is shorter than 2, people don't search for 'Example Deals' but they do search for 'Example Discounts' is quite large numbers, therefore 2 containts all the keywords. How much does including the keywords which you are targetting in the domain affect ranking these day?
Algorithm Updates | | easymatt0 -
Are multiple domains for my website hurting my Google ranking?
Hello, I currently have two domains showing up in google search: shwoodshop.com shop.shwoodshop.com These domains are currently ranked in the #2 and #3 spot, however my page is much more trafficked than the current #1 ranking. I am wondering if the fact that I have two domains competing for the #1 spot is hurting my search ranking. If so, what is the best way to remedy this issue and get back my #1 spot? I'm rather new to SEO and teaching myself as I go, so I appreciate the feedback!
Algorithm Updates | | shwoodshop0 -
Plural vs non-plural domain name
I'm sure this question has been answered and asked a 1,000 different ways but what would be the best domain name to use in the long term (2 years +)? The plural versions (examples.com) which has a decent domain authority and is ranking 1st in Google search results yet has less search volume or the singular version (example.com) that has no current SEO value for the search term that we'd like to target however the singular version of the keyword has a much higher search volume? so basically will it be better to have the exact match that has more volume or the plural form that has better rankings after 2 years of doing SEO for each domain? My guess is that using (examples.com) with the better domain authority and tightening the grip on its dominance in Google will still be more effective than having the exact match domain with more search volume for that keyword while performing the same amount of SEO even after two years. Any suggestions?
Algorithm Updates | | ydop0 -
If a page one result for a keyword is mostly directories, do I have a chance to rank for this keyword?
I feel like although directories carry a lot of weight and links, I'd think that my client would be able to gain a top position, since none of the others are competitor pages, nor are the directories engaging.
Algorithm Updates | | randallseo0