Should I redirect mobile traffic to a different url? Will it hurt SEO?
-
I'm working on a site that has lots of great content and ranks well but essentially the money is generated by affiliate links. I don't have a mobile version of the site but the company I'm affiliated with does offer a mobile redirect to their domain. Will redirecting mobile traffic to a different url hurt my SEO? I think the user will get a better experience by landing on a mobile page but I don't know if google will see it like that.
Any thoughts?
-
Hi Samuel,
I understand why it makes sense from a user experience perspective, although I'd be a little concerned that it would be a bit weird, especially if the domains are branded differently.
I'd probably start by avoiding an automatic redirect. The simplest option is probably to include a prominent CTA on the desktop version that says 'view mobile version at www.otherdomain.com'. If you want to get a bit fancier, you could display a message when a mobile user agent is detected, saying something like 'it looks like you're on a mobile device. Would you like to view a mobile-friendly version of this page?'. If you do this, make sure that
- a) the page is still accessible to a crawler with a mobile user agent (in other words, don't require input from the mobile user in order to view the desktop version, just include it as an option)
- b) use a cookie to avoid asking your mobile users to answer the question again every time they visit.
If you really want to do the redirect, start by testing on just a couple pages to check for any negative impact before rolling it out further.
-
I don't think you will have any problem. It won't be a doorway page or something like that because you are not deceiving the users, you are actually showing them the information they are requesting in the best possible way.
-
Thanks for your reply. I makes sense to me to have users land on a mobile page but just to clarify I'd be redirecting mobile traffic to a completely different domain not just a different URL. Will that be a problem?
-
Hi Samuel,
Google won't penalize you in any way if you redirect mobile users to another URL. Here you can find Google's Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites.
The best way to go for them is building a responsive design, but as you can see, Google encourages mobile redirections too.
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
-
Separate URL vs iFrame
Hi Everyone, I'm not a designer/developer and am an not extremely knowledgeable in SEO, but I'll try to be as clear as I can. One of the designers here is creating a recipe section on our website. He created it so that it's a container (or iFrame?) on the page. Basically, no matter what you click (different sections and recipes) the URL stays the same. I was told to find out from an SEO perspective if it's better to do things this way or have a separate URL for each section and recipe. It's been brought up that from a social/sharing standpoint separate URLs would be better so people can send a link directly to the specific recipe they want to share. Any thoughts/comments are appreciated! Thanks for the help!
On-Page Optimization | | AliMac260 -
Product URL
Hey Mozzers, Nice quick and simple one for you. Which of these 2 options is better for SEO and userbility and why domain.co.uk/productname.html
On-Page Optimization | | ATP
domain.co.uk/shop/category/product.html The top one stops stops any funky problems with magento making 2 paths to the same product but the second option feels more natural and helpful to the user. I feel both a valid but I would like some opinions please0 -
301 twice redirect (no negative)
Can i made twice 301 redirect, because i got "droped" domain and i dont want negative effect to new website. Can i redirect users some other way with no negative effect for fresh website?
On-Page Optimization | | cerar0 -
Lost all comments on our blog...will it hurt rankings?
We recently installed Facebook comments into our blog and now we lost all of our old comments. Does this have any affect on SEO? Will this hurt our rankings? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | TMI.com0 -
Www no longer redirects
Hi there, A while back I dropped the www from my domain. Everything redirected ok and I could still access my site using www and it would simply redirect to http://mysite This no longer seems to be occurring. I don't think I have changed anything? I don't believe I had anything in my htaccess however I am looking for some assistance in doing so. I've done a bit of reading but am not 100% confident! If anyone is interested, the url is http://cdkeyprices.com Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | MrPenguin0 -
Sorry, but that URL is inaccessible
Our site is all on the https protocol so every time I use the on-page grader it tells me the link is unavailable. What can we do? When I use the http protocol (which is 301 redirected to the https) it still gives me the same message.
On-Page Optimization | | whiskeyfl1 -
Changing the url of a page
Hello. I would like to change the url of a page. It currently has very few inbound links. I would set up a 301 redirect to the new url. Is there anything else I should take into account before changing the url? Is there a downside to changing a url? Do inbound links carry the same value when a 301 redirect is involved? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | nyc-seo0 -
SEO for EMD
Hi, I bought ForSaleInAZ.com for my real estate website. Google Keyword Tool estimate 301k local searches for that term. I would like to capitalize on this by building this site with good content. My question to you, besides the search being the URL, what is the best practice to specifically promote the "For Sale In AZ" phrase? Should it be in the Page Title, Meta Description, Content H1 & H2 tags, Image tag? Or, is it being in the URL good enough...so all I have to do is build good content? I understand not to over do it but I could use your advice. Can you please give me some suggestions/ guidelines to follow specifically to my EMD? SEO Expertise Level: I am comfortable and have the decent understanding but, by no means, an expert! Thanks, Carl
On-Page Optimization | | AmSupMktg0