MaxReferrals

Interesting read, and I agree with what he is saying:


• The best mobile strategy is to create a site that works on all devices.
• Otherwise use m.yourdomain.com, device detection to redirect (both ways) and canonical tags.
• Always provide a link for me to switch to the full version.
• If you want a true “device experience” then create an app.
• Stop saying “mobile SEO” when you mean “Local SEO”

Mobile SEO is a Myth | Search Engine Journal

Nail Yener

This is more or less what I have been thinking of mobile SEO.

The best mobile strategy is to create a site that works on all devices. Completely agreed. There are many ways to build a mobile site but the best way is to create one site and present it differently on different devices.

Always provide a link for me to switch to the full version. Having a link to the full site is good but not all the mobile sites require this. For some simple sites, if the important information and features are provided on the mobile site as well than there is no need to have a link to the full site. That's my personal view.

If you want a true “device experience” then create an app. I personally do not prefer apps over websites. Apps may make sense for big sites but never for small businesses etc.

Thanks for the share by the way.

JToneyUK

I know there have been threads regarding redirect scripts which detect the device you are on and take you to the mobile version of a site if you are on a mobile phone. However, things get a bit more complex when you give the user the option to go to the regular site. How does this work without geting stuck in a loop whereby you "click go to regular site", where the script then detects you're on a mobile and takes you straight back to the mobile version. The only way I see a workaround is to take the user to a replica of the homepage without the redirect script, but then there may be an issue of duplicate content. Also, do you have a redirect set up on every page to detect the users device or just the homepage?? This is especially troublesome on large sites, like ones with shopping carts etc.

With regards to apps it isn't logical for a website to have an app unless it involves frequent user interactivity such as online gambling sites, datiing, forums etc. Why would someone have dozen of apps on their phone for all of their favourite websites?

And back to the main topic, I think the regular sites SEO is what is important here! People will find the site on their normal computer through whatever means, Google, social media, paid ads etc and the mobile site is purely for usability factors.

However it does open the door to other means of marketing which lends itself to working in sync with the mobile site. Such as use of QR codes and coupons, intergration with Google maps, Facebook aps etc.

WillR

It is possible without having to create a replica of the main site. I created an easy solution that works but I can't post it here since it is part of my course and others have paid money for it. I have things set up so all you need to do is add a little piece of code to the end of the url link and it will then know to disable the redirect script for that mobile user so they can go ahead and view the standard site if they wish.

It is advisable to put the redirect script on all those pages you have a mobile version available for. For most small businesses this is not going to be a big deal - we are usually talking only 5 - 10 pages so it won't take you long to do. For those that have larger sites a lot of the times they are using the Wordpress platform for the website so I also created a plugin for Wordpress that allows you to insert the redirect script on every page or post with just a few clicks.

If you have a large ecommerce site that doesn't use the Wordpress platform, a lot of these types of sites will still use template type setups which means you can usually edit one file and it will insert that code into the header or footer of every page. On the off chance it doesn't then you could use an htaccess redirect which means it is installed on the server and not the website. The problem with both these types is that you are unable to redirect users to different pages. Let's say a user searches for your opening hours and finds your opening hours page in Google. When they click on it they should ideally be taken to the opening hours page of your mobile site - NOT the homepage of your mobile site. This is possible using the setups I use but not with the htaccess redirect and not with template setups that ecommerce sites might use.

Exactly.

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maile15

There is Mobile SEO - just not now!

At the beginning of the Internet there was no SEO as well. You didn't needed it because every page could be found directly...but this is the point. Now there is SEO because there are lots of websites und not everything can rank on the first page.

In a couple of years it will be standard to have a mobile page for every device! Then you need also mobile SEO...

JToneyUK

Cheers Will for your feedback, that's really useful. Just before I came back on this thread I actually figured a very basic and simple PHP script could be used utilising a basic count variable and IF statement. Not sure if it would work without affecting the normal PC users though lol.

Jay Moreno

@JTtoneyUK

i have previously been using cookies to handle the redirection loop and have recently ported the method over to our plugin which is currently going through beta testing... feedback so far has been great despite our initial concerns with mobile devices and cookie handling so its definitely an option...

as far as Mobile SEO is concerned i have been saying for the longest time - concentrate on ranking your main site instead and let the redirection handle your mobile visitors!

As much as everyone seems to prefer to use javascript screen size detection our recent tests have shown it is more unreliable than i previously thought especially with newer Androids... if you want to accurately redirect mobile visitors then i still maintain PHP user agent detection to be the best solution.

Craig Roberts

IF you were to look closely, SEO has been around long before the coming of the web. It was just not internationally recognized yet..

EvanBeck

I have to agree with Nail Yenner about apps. Also, building your site with this criteria is a form of SEO. If you are optimized for mobile devices, I would say that is mobile SEO.

As for apps, they are cool but have absolutely no SEO value a they cannot be indexed on search engines, as far as I can tell.

Evan Beck
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alexd

Apps can be indexed on search engines in terms of their Appstore page being found ( but not the app itself ). Take a look at the link below....
Google

Its for the search term "new york app". You will see that the second result is of a New York app available through the App Store.

I know its not really App SEO, but I just wanted to show that apps ( or their itunes pages ) can and do get indexed by Google.

jrlsage

Definately subscribing here.

I noticed my site get ssome mobile traffic, however my site isn't quite mobile ready.

apolwar

The first and foremost thing to do for Mobile SEOs. Clients might be using an Apple or Android or any other devices and your site might have problems loading into those devices.

bizzie73

You are mostly right. Most people that use mobile phones to find information use an app to find it. Are there that many websites that are exclusively made for mobile? I feel like the vast majority of websites have a mobile website and a web website.

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Jason Fladlien

Well, here's what is interesting... do a search for the same keyword on your mobile device and desktop computer using google.

Sometimes you'll get different results - sometimes you'll get the same results. Google hasn't broken their "mobile search results" out of the lab yet, but they will soon. Right now there just experimenting with it.

It makes sense because if google wants to deliver the most relevant results to a user... and the #1 site isn't mobile friendly... then it should be penalized on mobile devices.

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WillR

You are right in saying Google want to serve up the most relevant result to a users search - this is how they have become the search engine giant they are today. No one has come close to matching their relevance formula.

When you take that into account you'll understand Google won't just penalize sites in mobile searches simply because they are not mobile friendly. If the most relevant result is not mobile friendly I would still imagine it will outrank an only partially relevant mobile optimized website. People still need to find the most accurate information they are looking for regardless of whether the result is mobile optimized or not - and Google are well aware of that. If we were talking about two identical sites and one was mobile optimized then yes, I can see your logic there. The rest however is not so cut and dry.

Google know this and it's exactly why they are encouraging EVERYONE to optimize their sites for mobile. They released a free mobile website creator and they also added the feature to search results where you can see a very basic mobile optimized version of a websites main content. They know the only way this is going to work properly is if the majority of websites in their search results are optimized for mobile devices.

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