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
-
With MFI, should we delete our mobile version of our site?
I'll start by stating that a brand new responsive site is under development and will be launching early 2019. Until then, with Mobile First Indexing, we're curious if we should remove our mobile site altogether. Looking at Google guidelines, it looks like we have Dynamic serving content, so when a mobile device is used, a VERY TRIMMED down version of our site content is presented. I read that if a mobile version doesn't exist, google will use the MFI indexing on the desktop version still, since that is what is rendered on a mobile device. If Google starts using our mobile site for its indexing, we're not going to be looking good. At this point, are there negative affects to removing our mobile site and having the desktop version render on all devices?
Search Behavior | | Technical_Contact0 -
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 -
How & What is the best advice on Keyword Cannibalization & get onpage optimized perfectly?
Hi all mozzers, I am having confusion to understand the fact and importance to target a single or related grouped keywords which is quite broader in terms of relevancy being found within our business. Let's explain more in detail:
Search Behavior | | KammySEO
Suppose we have a website: abc.com deal businesses in "Party Supplies, Party Decorations" Where the term "Party Supplies" being used exact or randomly many places, please see below finalized Titles respective to each landing page: abc.com/birthday/
title - Birthday Party Supplies - Kids Birthday Party Decorations Ideas abc.com/wedding/
title - Wedding Favors - Wedding Party Decorations & Centerpieces abc.com/baking/
title - Buy Baking Supplies - Cupcake & Cake Decorating Supplies abc.com/occasions/
title - Special Occasions Parties Supplies & Events - Party Time My main concern is, do our keyword party supplies gets stuck with "Keyword Cannibalization" ? If yes then what is the best advice you folks like to input here in order to safeguard and optimize best our landing pages for the such broader related search terms within the businesses. I am looking for best answer here0 -
Isn't Buzzsumo Just A Measure Of Advertising Budget?
Hello, I see Buzzsumo being widely touted as a great way of seeing what other people are writing on a niche topic to give an indication of what is performing well according to the number of social media shares. Is this a good metric considering that any proportion of the shares could be paid for or secondary to advertising? I have looked at some of the sharers and often there is no data logged, or only a few listed. I see that often the longer posts have more shares; if I had written a 7000 word post I would be more likely to push it harder on social media and spend more promoting it, I wonder if this is skewing the data also. Thanks for your opinions on this. Toby
Search Behavior | | T0BY0 -
Best way to check the number of backlinks?
I know everyone is going to say opensiteexplorer (for obvious reasons) however why is there such a diffference in numbers between the following resources: 1. Open Site Explorer - 23 ref. domains & 939 links 2. Majestic SEO - 49 ref. domains & 599 links (fresh) / 111 ref. domains & 2332 links (historic) 3. Google Webmaster Tools - 6001 I understand the difference between fresh/historic in Majestic, it's the vast difference in numbers between the three services?!
Search Behavior | | seanjohnson0 -
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 -
Drastic Fluctuation in Site Rankings
All, Hope you are having a good day! Recently I had a strange issue with one of my site and I am not sure what might have caused it. I am sure this would be a good place to discuss about it and get some feedback from the elite people in the industry. Here is the problem. Last weekend (On sunday noon) my site which was ranking on Page 1 suddenly dropped its ranking for its main keywords to nowhere, I was panicked to see what was happening and by the end of the day it was slowly coming back and by next morning everything was back. Again on Wednesday noon, the same thing happened. However, this time it din't come up by the next morning. Making it worse, all of my keyword rankings went down from good spots to no where and there was a point when I could no longer see my site. I was worried something might have happened this time and was not sure what could the reason be. On Friday afternoon all the ranking came up better than the previous (which is a very good news for me). At the moment, my site is doing very well and I am really happy about it. I did realize that Google was updating their Algorithm, but this behavior is the strangest I have seen over years. Can someone enlighten me on this peculiar behavior. Is there something wrong with my site or is it a common thing that I have never noticed? I have never done anything blackhat for the site. To be honest, all I have done is some low level link building on the site and the site had some advantage of a re-direct from one my previous site which was doing very well in search engines (I changed it to take advantage of the new domain I had). Your opinions/suggestions are a appreciated.
Search Behavior | | frostmill0 -
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