Responsive design to serve different page for IE8 - SEO Implications?
-
A client is planning on developing a responsive designed website which redirects visitors using IE8 to a static webpage that encourages users to visit in another browser. What are the SEO implications of a server redirect just for IE8 visitors?
Possible solutions: would containing a link on the static page to "continue browsing" and give the visitor access to the entire site in IE8 work well? Or should a CSS overlay message appear to IE8 visitors, no redirect, that encourages them to visit in another browser? Or serving a separate stylesheet for IE8 visitors, and not giving a responsive experience be optimal?
Any suggestions or thoughts are appreciated.
Cheers,
Alex
-
Thanks everyone. Feedback much appreciated. I think I will go with a separate stylesheet which won't be responsive, but at least give IE8 users a better experience. If I see a high bounce rate or poor engagement with IE8 users, then I will probably add a overlay with browser message.
Cheers,
Alex
-
My preference goes to a seperate stylesheet. Many people will indeed not update their browser because they don't want too or because they can't. Depending on the niche you're in people might be visiting from their work computer a lot. Could be that they are stuck in an old browser from their. Therefor a link to a browser upgrade will only annoy them instead of helping them.
Using a stylesheet to fix the errors in older browsers (such as IE8) will give them a usable site which looks good too. This increases the user experience much more than an annoying pop-up.
-
I would go with the separate CSS for IE8 visitors. I agree that many WILL NOT download or even update their browser.
-
I like your suggestion with the overlay when a visitor is using IE8. Couple that with an additional stylesheet with fixes to make the site usable (if not responsive) to reduce visitor drop off (because you can bet that many people won't download a new browser and just leave the site)
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
-
Adding picture and new layout on jobs-overview page
Im running a castingsite today, where the jobs-overview page is the highest ranked on google on the important words. There is a big of reasons for that, it's updated daily, the domain is old and wellknown and so. Anyways, the today is this: (Yes it's ugly and old-school :))
Web Design | | KasperGJ
Current design:
http://www.onlinecasting.dk/auditions.asp I've created a new design, which is much nicer and with added pictures. The pictures in the new design, will be somewhat unique to the specific jobs, so the current ones are mostly for testing New design: (Not implemented)
http://www.onlinecasting.dk/auditionsnd.asp Question:
So my question is. Do you think this NEW design could affect my site / page in a bad way in SEO or?
I'm planning basically just to overwrite the old auditions.asp file with the new code. What do you guys think.0 -
Why is Google displaying meta descriptions for pages that are nowhere contained in said page metas?
Certain search keywords are pulling up incorrect page titles and meta descriptions for our site. I've looked through our code, and the text used by Google in the search results is nowhere found inside our site. I've also looked at previous iterations of our site from over a decade ago and still haven't found it. I then searched specifically for the exact phrased incorrect meta descriptions and found a long list of spammy sites linking to our domain with the exact, incorrect meta description. Is this why Google is displaying the incorrect data, and how do I get Google to use the meta descriptions from my actual site?
Web Design | | Closetstogo0 -
Using (duplicate) content in different contexts
I have three distinct hosting products, each solving three different problems. While these three products have different features in terms of functionality, they are all built on the same platform. Now, in terms of marketing some features of the platform, f.ex. High Availability, is significant to all of the products. How do I go about to include information about this feature on all product pages without getting penalized for duplicate content? Is there a way to tell Google that parts of the content on the pages for product 1-3 is duplicated with intent, or duplicated from f.ex. a page that explains the technical aspects of the platform?
Web Design | | SYSE0 -
Wordpress Blog Providing SEO to Main Site
Hi, I recently started a very much "learn on the job" SEO position, transitioning from a copywriting background. We currently have a wordpress blog up and running (and producing some decent quality content too I hope!) at example.com/blog/ and a sign up page located at example.com (sorry, can't put the address right now) for a site that is being custom built as it's got some nifty software linking to back end systems. My question is whether the content on the blog will bring SEO benefits to the main domain or whether it'll just be for the blog itself? If the latter, should we navigate the blog onto the a separate page of the main site? Thanks so much! I'm learning as much as I can as quickly as I can, but somethings still get me in a little bit of a tizzy.
Web Design | | LeahHutcheon0 -
What are some of the best Word Press themes for SEO?
Does anyone have any suggestions on the best wordpress themes to use? Here is one that has been recommended to me before: http://www.smallbiztheme.com/
Web Design | | webestate0 -
How SEO friendly (or unfriendly) this site structure is
We have a client who wants a site structure like this http://thethomasoliverband.com/home - try to scroll down on the content and see how the url of the site changes. Would there be any problems on trying to SEO this type of structure?
Web Design | | paulct0 -
Why is this page removed from Google & Bing indices?
This page has been removed from indices at Bing and Google, and I can't figure out why. http://www.pingg.com/occasion/weddings This page used to be in those indices There are plenty of internal links to it The rest of the site is fine It's not blocked by meta robots, robots.txt or canonical URL There's nothing else to suggest that the page is being penalized
Web Design | | Ehren0 -
Technical SEO Question about TLD combined with SubDomain
I am making a new website but need to figure out the best way to do this in terms of SEO. I would like the website to have functionality of brochure website combined with an online store. My issue is that I will be using software called prestashop for my online store and CMS called MODx to develop my brochure site. (These can not be combined into one CMS). I can create brochure site with MOdx = www.example.com & then from that a subdomain using prestashop for my online store = store.example.com Can I get Google to index these as one site or would I be better off trying to get everything under the TLD. Ideally I would like just one site without subdomain Bacially what I am asking is... What are the effects of having subdomains in terms of SEO? Am I better of having everyhitng under TLD? Can I get Google to view TLD and Sub as one site? Hope this makes sense, thank you.
Web Design | | Socialdude0