Mobile SEO: Finally Google Adds Smartphone Searchbot!!!

Jay Moreno · 21st Dec 2011, 08:51 AM

Finally if you have read any of my posts about mobile seo you will note that i have always said that i wanted Google to address sites made for smartphone... guess Christmas came early for me!

Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing smartphone Googlebot-Mobile

In summary they have finally added featurephone bots and smartphone bots - this is a big deal, well to me anyway and could be possibly a game changer in how the search engine results pages rank mobile sites... however saying that previously it had zero impact on position but they just highlighted the mobile listing on google search for non smart phones with a green handset...

Now to go out and test the impact on mobile seo - looks like i am going to be busy for the next few days!

Will post back when i have chance to take everything in...

UPDATE
One thing is for sure if you want your mobile site indexed you need to be serving a user agent redirect and not a screen size detection based one on your main desktop site...

YellowGreenMedia · 21st Dec 2011, 10:54 AM

Well thank God for that, it is about time that Google made its move in this direction, i was really waiting on it, i never understood why they didn't came up with this sooner, now you still see mainly normal sites outranking mobiles in the m.google.com... i hope that this is soon a thing of the past.... could be a great selling point...

Thanks for the heads up

Dave

WillR · 21st Dec 2011, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by Jay Moreno

One thing is for sure if you want your mobile site indexed you need to be serving a user agent redirect and not a screen size detection based one on your main desktop site...

Twas only a matter of time. Thanks Jay.

Although I am seeing a need to slowly change over to user agent redirects, I've never had trouble getting mobile sites indexed with the screen size redirect. The important part is having pages coded in XHTML-MP and a mobile sitemap that alerts Google to those pages.

Jay Moreno · 22nd Dec 2011, 04:15 AM

As well as user agent detection, from the looks of it you may need to add a 301 redirect as well, depends how your two sites are setup - I still don't think it will detect javacsript redirection even if it's user agent based...

Also wondering if they will identify it as mobile with an icon or something in the search as they do in search for non smartphones?

Sorry Will just re-read what you wrote, what they are saying Or if understand correctly is if say your desktop home page is ranked and you have a mobile site they will show your mobile home page first and not even bother with our desktop home page so the end user doesn't have to wait that fraction of a second lol although it's not a big deal if they do introduce that icon it may e worth changing I from he careen size detection to user agent... I would still do the mobile sitemap too.

Hope that makes sense is 4am am on the back end of an extremely long day lol

eurotunes · 28th Dec 2011, 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by YellowGreenMedia

Well thank God for that, it is about time that Google made its move in this direction, i was really waiting on it, i never understood why they didn't came up with this sooner, now you still see mainly normal sites outranking mobiles in the m.google.com...

I couldn't agree more! It's really horrible to see all the non-mobile sites high in m.google search. So I consider this as a very nice christmas present from G

21st Dec 2011, 08:51 AM	#1
Jay Moreno Mobile+WP = JumpMobi.com War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: San Antonio, Tx Posts: 1,270 Thanks: 301 Thanked 449 Times in 309 Posts	Mobile SEO: Finally Google Adds Smartphone Searchbot!!! Share on: Finally if you have read any of my posts about mobile seo you will note that i have always said that i wanted Google to address sites made for smartphone... guess Christmas came early for me! Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing smartphone Googlebot-Mobile In summary they have finally added featurephone bots and smartphone bots - this is a big deal, well to me anyway and could be possibly a game changer in how the search engine results pages rank mobile sites... however saying that previously it had zero impact on position but they just highlighted the mobile listing on google search for non smart phones with a green handset... Now to go out and test the impact on mobile seo - looks like i am going to be busy for the next few days! Will post back when i have chance to take everything in... UPDATE One thing is for sure if you want your mobile site indexed you need to be serving a user agent redirect and not a screen size detection based one on your main desktop site...
	Sorry, I am too busy helping people to think of a cool signature!

21st Dec 2011, 10:54 AM	#2
YellowGreenMedia Dave Zegers War Room Member Join Date: 2011 Location: The Hague Posts: 559 Thanks: 229 Thanked 207 Times in 118 Posts	Re: Mobile SEO: Finally Google Adds Smartphone Searchbot!!! Share on: Well thank God for that, it is about time that Google made its move in this direction, i was really waiting on it, i never understood why they didn't came up with this sooner, now you still see mainly normal sites outranking mobiles in the m.google.com... i hope that this is soon a thing of the past.... could be a great selling point... Thanks for the heads up Dave

22nd Dec 2011, 04:15 AM	#4
Jay Moreno Mobile+WP = JumpMobi.com War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: San Antonio, Tx Posts: 1,270 Thanks: 301 Thanked 449 Times in 309 Posts	Re: Mobile SEO: Finally Google Adds Smartphone Searchbot!!! Share on: As well as user agent detection, from the looks of it you may need to add a 301 redirect as well, depends how your two sites are setup - I still don't think it will detect javacsript redirection even if it's user agent based... Also wondering if they will identify it as mobile with an icon or something in the search as they do in search for non smartphones? Sorry Will just re-read what you wrote, what they are saying Or if understand correctly is if say your desktop home page is ranked and you have a mobile site they will show your mobile home page first and not even bother with our desktop home page so the end user doesn't have to wait that fraction of a second lol although it's not a big deal if they do introduce that icon it may e worth changing I from he careen size detection to user agent... I would still do the mobile sitemap too. Hope that makes sense is 4am am on the back end of an extremely long day lol
	Sorry, I am too busy helping people to think of a cool signature!