What if page exists for desktop but not mobile?
-
I have a domain (no subdomains) that serves up different dynamic content for mobile/desktop pages--each having the exact same page url, kind of a semi responsive design, and will be using "Vary: User-Agent" to give Google a heads up on this setup.
However, some of the pages are only valid for mobile or only valid for desktop. In the case of when a page is valid only for mobile (call it mysite.com/mobile-page-only ), Google Webmaster Tools is giving me a soft 404 error under Desktop, saying that the page does not exist, Apparently it is doing that because my program is actually redirecting the user/crawler to the home page. It appears from the info about soft 404 errors that Google is saying since it "doesn't exist" I should give the user a 404 page--which I can make it customized and give the user an option to go to the home page, or choose links from a menu, etc..
My concern is that if I tell the desktop bot that mysite.com/mobile-page-only basically is a 404 error (ie doesn't exist), that it could mess up the mobile bot indexing for that page--since it definitely DOES exist for mobile users..
Does anyone here know for sure that Google will index a page for mobile that is a 404 not found for desktop and vice versa? Obviously it is important to not remove something from an index in which it belongs, so whether Google is careful to differential the two is a very important issue. Has anybody here dealt with this or seen anything from Google that addresses it? Might one be better off leaving it as a soft 404 error?
EDIT: also, what about Bing and Yahoo? Can we assume they will handle it the same way?
EDIT: closely related question--in a case like mine does Google need a separate sitemap for the valid mobile pages and valid desktop pages even though most links will be in both? I can't tell from reading several q&a on this.
Thanks, Ted
-
Monica,
I'm going to open a new thread to ask a similar question, as I think I didn't ask it very well.
Thanks for your input,
Ted
-
Thanks. If I understand you, the mobile bot won't crawl a url that the desktop bot has said needs to be fixed for it to work right for desktop. . Would you agree that doesn't really sound right on Google's part, since the url is fine for mobile use? I don't know why it wouldn't crawl for mobile, but if that's the way it is I can try fixing it on desktop to see if that enables the mobile to get crawled.
Once I do that I guess I'll find out whether a 404 not found for desktop will disable it from crawling for mobile (yes that link is accessible from other pages)--I was hoping to avoid trial and error on that because the time lag seems like it would be hard to pin down.
In a nutshell here's what I'm concerned will happen:
Google mobile bot crawls my mobile page and indexes it: Then the desktop bot crawls the same url and gets a 404 not found. Because of the desktop not found, Google removes it from the mobile page index.
I don't see a good way to test that since it depends on when each crawler is crawling. And, if this is what it is doing, I can't think of a good solution to having a responsive site with some content meant only for mobile indexing or only for desktop indexing.
-
If a URL is labeled a 404 it will not be crawled again unless there is a reason to, you mark it as fixed, or you edit the link in some form or fashion. Mark it as fixed and see if the error comes back. There is no harm in doing this.
Can you get to the page on your mobile device just by clicking through your site? If you can, that is good, it will eventually encourage a mobile bot to crawl it. If you can fetch and render as google, then I would just give it some time. I am not sure if there is a string of code you can add to the head of that page telling the robots that it is a mobile only page. I don't know how that works.
I would just mark it as fixed right now and see what happens over the next couple of days.
-
Hi Monica-thanks for your reply:
Ok, for a page that is supposed to be mobile only within a responsive-like setup(ie one domain) here's what I see:
The desktop bot crawls the link and gives a soft 404 error -- presumably because the page is currently being redirected to the home page.
The mobile bot is not crawling that link despite it being prominent on the main site home page, as my dbase is tracking the bot crawling and is not showing that it crawled that link for mobile (but is for desktop), and a search on my smartphone doesn't show that link either (even though it does show other links for pages used by both).. **Yet, if I fetch the mobile only page in webmaster tools using their mobile bot it finds it and renders it perfectly. ** So, why isn't it crawling it? Is it because when the mobile bot crawls it first looks and sees that that link is already 'flagged' as a soft 404 for the desktop? Or, is it because the mobile crawler is getting hung up on a link on the home page for mobile that has nothing to do with this mobile-only link?
It appears that the mobile bot is influenced by the desktop bot results--which is my fear: It seems to me their 2 bots should be independent of each other. If they aren't independent then if I change it to a 404 not found for desktop, would that even help, or would that prevent the mobile bot from ever trying to crawl it?
I would think that anybody who has a responsive page design and has blocked out certain content so that it renders only for mobile or only for non-mobile has had to face this issue.
Not sure what to do--I could fix the soft errors--change them to 404 not found and just see then if Google starts indexing for mobile or not, but was hoping to get some feedback before experimenting.
Thanks again, and please share more if you have more thoughts!
-
Did you look at your Mobile 404 errors? Google uses a different bot for mobile sites and anything related to that mobile page. Chances are, if it isn't reflecting a 404 in the Mobile errors in GWT, it is being indexed properly.
Check it out from you phone. Google the exact keyword and your company name. See if you can get to the page and if it is in fact the correct page.
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
-
URL structure - Page Path vs No Page Path
We are currently re building our URL structure for eccomerce websites. We have seen a lot of site removing the page path on product pages e.g. https://www.theiconic.co.nz/liberty-beach-blossom-shirt-680193.html versus what would normally be https://www.theiconic.co.nz/womens-clothing-tops/liberty-beach-blossom-shirt-680193.html Should we be removing the site page path for a product page to keep the url shorter or should we keep it? I can see that we would loose the hierarchy juice to a product page but not sure what is the right thing to do.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ashcastle0 -
Which of these examples are doorway pages?
Hi there, I am soon to launch a new platform/directory website, however, have a concern over doorway pages. I have read many articles on the difference between Doorway and Landing pages and do have a good understanding, however, am still very anxious that what I intend to do will be risking Google penalties. I have looked at other directory/platform websites and have noticed that a lot of them are still using doorway pages and are not getting penalised. So I was wondering if someone wouldn't mind kindly letting me know their opinion on which of the following examples are doorway pages and which are not so I can better understand what I can and cannot do? Example 1: When I Google 'piano lessons new york' and 'trumpet lessons new york' I get the following 'landing pages' in search: https://takelessons.com/new-york/piano-lessons https://takelessons.com/new-york/trumpet-lessons To me, the above pages are definitely doorway pages as they are very similar with content and text and are simply an intermediary step between the Google search and their listings pages for piano/trumpet teachers in New York. Is this correct? Example 2: When I Google 'piano lessons Sydney' I get presented with the following web page in search: http://www.musicteacher.com.au/directory/sydney-nsw/lessons/piano/ I would think that this is NOT a doorway page as the user has been taken directly to the search results page in the directory and the page doesn't seem to have been set up for the sole purpose of listing in search results for 'Piano Lessons in Sydney'. Example 3: When I Google 'pet minding Sydney' I get presented with the following two pages in search: https://www.madpaws.com.au/petsitters/Sydney-New-South-Wales?type=night&service=1&from=0&to=99&city=Sydney&state=New-South-Wales https://www.pawshake.com.au/petsitters/Sydney%252C%2520New%2520South%2520Wales%252C%2520Australia Like Example 2, I don't think these pages would be classified as doorway pages as they too direct to the search results page in the site directory instead of an intermediary page. What do you think? Thanks so much in advance for your expertise and help! Kind Regards, Adrian
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Amor20050 -
Magento & Accelerated Mobile Pages
Hi Folks, With Google rolling out changes to AMP & webmasters being encouraged to implement AMP.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Patrick_556
Has anyone had any experiences implementing AMP for Magento Ecommerce. I understand that AMP is primary for articles & blog posts, but assuming AMP could be implemented on Product Pages, they would load faster & offer a better user experience & a step in the right direction What do you guys think? Many Thanks,
Patrick0 -
Duplicate page content on numerical blog pages?
Hello everyone, I'm still relatively new at SEO and am still trying my best to learn. However, I have this persistent issue. My site is on WordPress and all of my blog pages e.g page one, page two etc are all coming up as duplicate content. Here are some URL examples of what I mean: http://3mil.co.uk/insights-web-design-blog/page/3/ http://3mil.co.uk/insights-web-design-blog/page/4/ Does anyone have any ideas? I have already no indexed categories and tags so it is not them. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 3mil0 -
How to associate content on one page to another page
Hi all, I would like associate content on "Page A" with "Page B". The content is not the same, but we want to tell Google it should be associated. Is there an easy way to do this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Viewpoints1 -
Duplicated Pages and Forums
Does duplicate content hurt that particular duplicated content, or the entire site? There are some parts of my site that I don’t care about getting high rankings on search engines. For example, I have a forum and there are certain links that only logged in people can see. If you aren’t logged in, they will take you to a page where it tells u to log in. google, obviously not logged in, interprets this as lots and lots of the same duplicated page. Should I just leave it alone cause I dont care if those pages makes it to search engines. Will it not hurt the entire site? For example, can my homepage search rankings decrase? That leads to my next question. What is the best way to optimize a forum? Whenever someone posts a new post, it seems another url for the same forum thread is created..... which is obviously duplicated….in other words, if like 20 people post on a thread, i believe my site adds 20 urls for that page...anyone know how to fix this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | waltergah0 -
Linking to local pages on main page - keyword self-cannibalization issue?
Hi guys, Our website has this landing page: www.example.com/service1/ Is this considered keyword self-cannibalization if on the above page we link to local pages such as: www.example.com/service1-in-chicago/ www.example.com/service1-in-newyork/ www.example.com/service1-in-texas/ Many thanks David
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sssrpm0 -
Why duplicate content for same page?
Hi, My SEOMOZ crawl diagnostic warn me about duplicate content. However, to me the content is not duplicated. For instance it would give me something like: (URLs/Internal Links/External Links/Page Authority/Linking Root Domains) http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/contact?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews20110516 /1/1/31/2 http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/contact?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews20110711 0/0/1/0 http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/contact?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews20110811 0/0/1/0 http://www.nuxeo.com/en/about/contact?utm_source=enews&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=enews20110911 0/0/1/0 Why is this seen as duplicate content when it is only URL with campaign tracking codes to the same content? Do I need to clean this?Thanks for answer
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nuxeo0