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Thanks Thomas, I've pushed back and said no, part of my original SEO requirement was to eliminate the blanket redirect but there's always pushback and wanted to have more ammo in my back pocket.

Definitely will be implementing vary http header, etc when we do have mobile version. I did not know about the apex/ CNAME/ Aname, I appreciate the tip.

Question since Google is somewhat vague on what they consider mobile "equivalent" content. This is the hand we're dealt with due to budget, no m.dot, etc, responsive/dynamic is on the roadmap but still a couple quarters away but, for now, here's the situation.

We have two sets of content and experiences, one for desktop and one for mobile. The problem is that desktop content does not = mobile content. The layout, user experience, images and copy aren't the same across both versions - they are not dramatically different but not identical. In many cases, no mobile equivalent exists.

Dev wants to redirect visitors who find the desktop version in mobile search to the equivalent mobile experience, when it exists, when it doesn't they want to redirect to the mobile homepage - which really isn't a homepage it's an unfiltered view of the content. Yeah we have push state in place for the mobile version etc.

My concern is that Google will look at this as cloaking, maybe not in the cases where there's a near equivalent piece of content, but definitely when we're redirecting to the "homepage". Not to mention this isn't a great user experience and will impact conversion/engagement metrics which are likely  factors Google's algorithm considers.

What's the MOZ Community say about this? Cloaking or Not and Why?

Thanks!