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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 01:43 AM   #1
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Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Is it better to do a subdomain (m.clientdomain.com) or setup a directory folder (clientdomain.com/mobile) when creating mobile sites for clients?

Any advantage to doing it either way?

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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 05:21 AM   #2
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Subdomain seems to be the general consensus. You use folders for different sections of a website. Subdomains are called that because they are indeed, subdomains. They are a more logical choice for storing a different version of the same website -- which is exactly what a mobile website is.

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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 07:41 AM   #3
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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m.domain.com
Pros
  • Easier to access and maintain. The DNS is all stored under the same domain. No additional domain to purchase, set up, and manage.
  • Easier to type on a phone. iPhone and Android on-screen keyboards include a .com button on the virtual keyboard.
  • Keeps your brand in-tact. People already know domain.com is yours. Something like domain.mobimight confuse them.
  • Free. Setting up a subdomain should be a simple process depending on the web host.
  • Higher adoption in the US. Companies such as Yahoo, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Facebook have adopted this method.
  • Support for multinational domains. Some companies such as Amazon have Amazon.com for their US presence and Amazon.co.uk for their UK presence. A .mobi site just comes in .mobi. I suppose you could have co.uk.amazon.mobi, but that sounds messy (and backwards). m.amazon.co.uk makes more sense.
  • It's what Matt Cutts said. Matt, who works at Google and shares webmaster tips for best practices, suggested that m.domain.com will do the trick.
  • Cookie support. This may be one of the greatest benefits of the m.domain.com method. Cookies, or temporary files on your computer used to store information, can be set for a domain and a certain subdomain. With domain.mobi, however, cookies cannot work across multiple domains. So, if you logged into a mobile website but needed to view the desktop website and wanted to switch to that mode, using m.domain.com would be best so you can stay logged in between both sites.
Cons
  • Too ambiguous. Some would argue "m.domain.com" makes no sense and isn't intuitive for people looking for the mobile site.
  • No carrier transcoding. Few phone carriers are transcoding websites so when someone access a site on their phone the website gets reduced in size so it loads faster. This could break some desktop websites and mobile sites. Only Sprint PCS in the US and Vodaphone in the UK are doing this that we've heard of. The work around is to manually register your mobile website as a mobile website with each carrier.
SOURCE: .mobi versus m Subdomain for Your Mobile Website | NotixTech




best of luck!

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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 08:08 AM   #4
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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I mostly use the ".m" method, although I have set up a "clientname.mobi" recently per customer request, with a redirect on their .com site. There are advantages to each....... just comes down to preference I suppose. I tend to agree with Will that it is a separate domain, so the .m or .mobi makes more sense to me, anyways.

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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 08:55 PM   #5
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Subdomain with the m.yoursite.com extension. I setup a directory on my site to show them a sample before I finish the site but once it's live, I subdomain that puppy!

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Unread 8th Feb 2012, 09:49 PM   #6
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Originally Posted by Qcreek View Post

m.domain.com
Pros
  • Easier to access and maintain. The DNS is all stored under the same domain. No additional domain to purchase, set up, and manage.
  • Easier to type on a phone. iPhone and Android on-screen keyboards include a .com button on the virtual keyboard.
  • Keeps your brand in-tact. People already know domain.com is yours. Something like domain.mobimight confuse them.
  • Free. Setting up a subdomain should be a simple process depending on the web host.
  • Higher adoption in the US. Companies such as Yahoo, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Facebook have adopted this method.
  • Support for multinational domains. Some companies such as Amazon have Amazon.com for their US presence and Amazon.co.uk for their UK presence. A .mobi site just comes in .mobi. I suppose you could have co.uk.amazon.mobi, but that sounds messy (and backwards). m.amazon.co.uk makes more sense.
  • It's what Matt Cutts said. Matt, who works at Google and shares webmaster tips for best practices, suggested that m.domain.com will do the trick.
  • Cookie support. This may be one of the greatest benefits of the m.domain.com method. Cookies, or temporary files on your computer used to store information, can be set for a domain and a certain subdomain. With domain.mobi, however, cookies cannot work across multiple domains. So, if you logged into a mobile website but needed to view the desktop website and wanted to switch to that mode, using m.domain.com would be best so you can stay logged in between both sites.
Cons
  • Too ambiguous. Some would argue "m.domain.com" makes no sense and isn't intuitive for people looking for the mobile site.
  • No carrier transcoding. Few phone carriers are transcoding websites so when someone access a site on their phone the website gets reduced in size so it loads faster. This could break some desktop websites and mobile sites. Only Sprint PCS in the US and Vodaphone in the UK are doing this that we've heard of. The work around is to manually register your mobile website as a mobile website with each carrier.
SOURCE: .mobi versus m Subdomain for Your Mobile Website | NotixTech




best of luck!
What the author on Sprint's transcoding failed to mention is that Sprint has stated the following in the PDF that released after the release of the OpenWave transcoder which states:

"OpenWeb transcoder will not modify sites with urls matching the patterns *.mobi, m.*, wp.*, mobile.*, wireless.* and pda.* and that owners of mobile sites not matching those patterns should request that their sites be excluded by posting a request to the Sprint Developer Forum "

Taking that into consideration...using the m. subdomain will work just fine.

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Unread 9th Feb 2012, 03:13 PM   #7
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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what if a business has two different web site and someone does a search which on shows up
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Unread 10th Feb 2012, 10:56 AM   #8
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Originally Posted by Jeff Hogsten View Post

what if a business has two different web site and someone does a search which on shows up
A mobile detection redirection script is implanted in the HEAD Tags of the Desktop site that automatically detects that the user is visiting from a mobile device and redirects according ly. If the user is searching on a Mobile Device then Google will present the Mobile site...and if they are searching on a desktop...the desktop site will be listed.

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Unread 11th Feb 2012, 10:28 AM   #9
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Originally Posted by mrtrance View Post

Is it better to do a subdomain (m.clientdomain.com) or setup a directory folder (clientdomain.com/mobile) when creating mobile sites for clients?

Any advantage to doing it either way?
The other option would be to have it on http://www.customerURL.mobi

However, it might be worth consulting your client too of their preference.
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Unread 11th Feb 2012, 11:29 AM   #10
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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If you go the subdomain route (most popular) be aware that if you host these sites under the same account as in Hostgator (shared server) you can only use the "m" sub one time.

Keep that in mind when building sites for clients, if the have more than one site hosted on a shared plan (HG style) then you may want to make it more unique and keep it short.

I use numbers (1.website.com, 2.website.com, etc) so this way the domain itself is shown in the browser.


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Unread 11th Feb 2012, 11:23 PM   #11
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Originally Posted by KingMedia View Post

If you go the subdomain route (most popular) be aware that if you host these sites under the same account as in Hostgator (shared server) you can only use the "m" sub one time.

Keep that in mind when building sites for clients, if the have more than one site hosted on a shared plan (HG style) then you may want to make it more unique and keep it short.

I use numbers (1.website.com, 2.website.com, etc) so this way the domain itself is shown in the browser.
It doesn't matter if you are with shared or dedicated hosting or with Hostgator or any other hosting company, you can never have two identical subdomains on the one domain. It's impossible. Just like you could never have two folders named exactly the same.

If you are using one domain and want to host a number of different clients then you are best to just go with businessname.yourwebsite.com

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Unread 12th Feb 2012, 12:24 PM   #12
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Re: Subdomain or directory folder when setting up mobile site?
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Originally Posted by WillR View Post

It doesn't matter if you are with shared or dedicated hosting or with Hostgator or any other hosting company, you can never have two identical subdomains on the one domain. It's impossible. Just like you could never have two folders named exactly the same.

If you are using one domain and want to host a number of different clients then you are best to just go with businessname.yourwebsite.com

...of course using the business name would be best.


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