What's the best way to redirect mobile site?
-
Hi,
We have a mobile website using a sub-directory domain.com/m/whatever-page/. Our mobile is completely separate site from desktop version.
What's the best way to handle the redirection from mobile visitors and those that are searching from mobile and see desktop version in the search result?
Appreciate anyone's expert advise.
Thanks,
Willy -
I've responded to specific comments below, but here's the information you need to redirect: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details
The gist is, you need:
- 301 or 302 redirects from the desktop site to the mobile site, based on user agent detection
- Rel="canonical" tag on each mobile page pointing to to each desktop page
- Rel="alternate" tag on each desktop page pointing to each mobile page
- A Vary HTTP header
- A mobile sitemap
As I mentioned below, I also recommend that you have a link at the bottom of the mobile and desktop sites pointing to the other version. That way, if you get the redirects wrong, people can self correct.
-
I disagree with Lesley, saying that you should just ask. I would recommend that you redirect to the mobile version of the the site, then ask. Basically: get people onto the page that you're 90% sure they want to be on, but let them switch back and forth. Just add a link to the footer of the deskop and mobile sites letting people switch between the two.
He's correct about redirecting to the right page, though. Don't redirect all of your desktop pages to the mobile homepage. When Google ranks your desktop pages on mobile search results, it checks out the redirect to mobile content. If the mobile content isn't similar, the page won't rank in mobile.
-
The best way to handle redirects is to use a 301 or 302 redirect (this is probably the only time in SEO that either gives the same result) based on user agent detection.
Is that enough detail?
-
Just to add to our original question. It seems pretty clear that device detection is accomplished by user agent detection. Under our original plan to redirect visitors on mobiles to a new URL which carries the mobile version of the page, how should that redirection be accomplished in a search engine compatible fashion? What type of redirection should be used?
I suspect we'll need to continue with our plan to redirect to a different URL for now, but am concerned that this needs to happen in a way which won't harm our SEO.
many thanks in advance for any help with this ....
-
Thanks Leslie, interesting and useful considerations.
-
The best way is to ask. With the ever changing landscape of devices, automatically redirecting is falling out of favor. I would use a cookied little bar at the bottom of the page that asks if they want to view the mobile site. Let them select or close it and have it expire after the session.
One thing to keep in mind, google wants you to redirect to the same mobile page. Like if a user is on site.com/products/nifty-hair-gizmo.html don't redirect them to m.site.com, redirect them to m.site.com/products/nifty-hair-gizmo.html
The reason that automatically redirecting is falling out is because of devices like the new chrome cast and how other phones are set up. I might browse to your site on my phone and be casting it to my 46" lcd and you would never know. But I am going to be irritated if I have to look at your site in a mobile version on my tv.
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
-
Google Index Issue - Indexing pages that don't exhist
Hi All, I have noticed a weird issue when performing a search on Google to show me all the pages it is indexing of our site. site:www.one2create.co.uk It brings up most of our website pages but then is also brings up a few HTTPS urls (our site has not been converted to HTTPS yet) but also the URL path, Title, and Meta Description are from one of our clients websites (an Automotive Job site). When clicked they take you to a generic 404 server error page, not our branded 404 page. The site that it has taken the url, title and meta description from is on a different server completely so I don't see how it has even managed to get that information and linked it to our site? Has anyone seen anything like this before? And what is the best way to fix it? We have asked Google to re-index the site but still no luck.
Search Behavior | | Jvickery0 -
Direct 100+ URLs to our sister site?
Hi, We have two websites www.eurekasolutions.co.uk and www.eurekaaddons.co.uk - currently the eurekasolutions site has eureka addon products on it - we are thinking of re-directing these to www.eurekaaddons.co.uk instead (there are 100+ pages which are being ranked and picked up by google) Would it be foolish to re-direct these from eurekasolutions straight to eurekaaddons after them being on eurekasolutions for many many years? if so what is the best way to go about it and would this have a direct negative effect on our SEO? Both sites are serving for similar terms. Thanks,
Search Behavior | | EurekaSolutions0 -
Will creating sub folders for foreign versions of the website, remove rank juice from the main site?
Hi, We plan to create sub-folders for our german, spanish and italian language versions. If we do will this pass rank juice to the new sites, but at the same time badly effect our main site, regards link juice/serp? Or is this not such a huge factor in people's experience? Many thanks. James.
Search Behavior | | Quime1 -
Internal Site Search Analysis
Hi Folks, I have about 6,000 internal site search phrases that I want to analyze. There are many variations and duplicates that have similar intent within the data, e.g. Employment, Employment Opportunities, Employment Application. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I can aggregate the data to get an idea of user intent. There's a lot of long-tail in there. The data does not come from Google's site search tool. I just have a spreadsheet of the terms and the number of times they were searched. Cheers!
Search Behavior | | BedeFahey0 -
Buying expired domains with PR and redirecting question :)
Hi, Might be a silly question but wanted to ask it anyway. Lets say I run a gifts website and this year I decide I want to try for a more competitive keyword 'Christmas Gifts'. Now each year I see a lot of search on for example 'Christmas Gifts 2011' and because of the search volume the EMD for this is gone (an affiliate has brought it or something). So the affiliate works hard on ranking it builds up say PR2-PR3 but when it comes around to renewing the domain they don't bother because 2011 search volume has passed and they move onto 'Christmas Gifts 2012'. My question is this: If I was to buy the 'Christmas Gifts 2011' when it expires and redirect it to my Xmas page would it pass the PR and give my new page a boost?
Search Behavior | | activitysuper0 -
Googles 'freshness' update and how it may affect Estate Agents.
We have some clients who have raised concerns over how this new update will affect them. They are an Estate Agents who regularly update their property portfolio, blogs and news section etc. Can you advise how they may or may not be directly affected? Thank you.
Search Behavior | | SoundinTheory0 -
How is this Dr. Getting a Ranking on a National Site in a Local Listing?
Please follow the link for a visual. Any help would be appreciated. The query I used was "phoenix plastic surgeons". I have never seen a large national site like PlasticSurgery.org Rank in local for a specific Dr. Thoughts? Thanks! 7O1oK
Search Behavior | | Red_Spot_Interactive0 -
Is there way to pull a report by date a backlink was aquired?
I'm trying to figure out if the lift in our traffic has anything to do with a new backlink. Is there a way to get an alert anytime a new site links back to us our pull a backlink report by date.
Search Behavior | | M.Seals0