Responsive design or mobile website for SEO
-
Because domains with a mobile version have better rankings in Google then domains with only a deskop version we're considering a mobile website. My web developer says that a m.domain.com is duplicated with the domain.com, and he recommends a responsive design.
What is better for SEO positions in mobiles devices. A m.domain mobile website or a responsive design. What are influential factors?
-
Thanks for the respons. Responsive design is probably the best option with the best usability users.
-
I am in total agreement with Marcus and Simon, you should be designing your site for the best possible user experience.
Your ranking will be associated with the quality of user experience provided by your website, this a job for google and not us... you should always ensure that user experience is a priority and organic rankings will follow.
-
Hey, I think Simon pretty much nailed this here. Responsive is ideal and the stated preference from Google HQ but with the caveat that you should first consider what is best for the users.
I tend to prefer simplified mobile sites (on the same URL) with some of the content pared back to responsive sites for some of the gaming blogs I read as they are just so image heavy and it provides a simpler, faster and ultimately better experience whilst I am in areas with a less than stellar mobile data connection.
So, responsive if that is suitable but always consider the end user first and tailor your approach to suit.
Hope that helps!
Marcus -
I think the best thing to consider is what is best for your users rather than a search engine. If having a mobile version improves their user experience then great.
Google have expressed a preference for responsive over mobile but again you have to think are your users best served by a mobile (and possibly scaled back version) of your site.
There have been some great blogs on Moz on the whole mobile issue which I think you should check out.
http://moz.com/blog/seo-of-responsive-web-design
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
-
New Re-design will my website rankings drop?
Hi guys, I have had to re-design my site although we are only 4 months into the seo game we have seen some good progress with our rankings. My question is there anything I need to consider before implementing the new designs so it doesn't effect my current rankings or any of our SEO work. Our current designs are content thing and so we have had to create more content to better optimize our site, however if doing so will this loose our current ranking position? Apperciate any advice around this Thanks
Web Design | | edward-may0 -
How can a Pincode finder website be SEO optimised?
Guys, I wanted to build a simple Pincode finder website for India. The targeted visitors as is obvious will be from India. Alike other Pincode finder websites, the users in this case too will have to key in the location / area of whose pincode he is looking for and they will get Pincode from that very location / area. Other than this, users will also come to this website when they search for something like " <location name="">pincode</location>" on Google (for instance, users will search for something like "Hiranandani Gardens Powai Pincode") Along with data fethced from our sources via Indian postal departments and other data available in public domain, we shall be using data from Google Maps API too. My question in regards to the same is as follows: What should the page-structure / structure of the website be for ranking well on Google? What should be the URL structure? Other suggestions to rank well on Google in this regards? Competition: (You can search for the term "Hiranandani Gardens Powai Pincode" to know how these sites show data) http://www.getpincode.info http://www.pincode.net.in Pls. help...
Web Design | | ShalinTJ0 -
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
Web Design | | Alex.Weintraub0 -
Optimizing a Wordpress Blog For SEO
Besides the standard Yoast for SEO plugin tweaks, I'm researching best practices when setting up a wordpress blog. In this instance, the "front end" of the site would be hardcoded static pages designed for an e-commerce site, while there would also be a /blog/ attached to the site - for blog posts, fresh content, etc.
Web Design | | GKLA0 -
Intuit Website Hosting - Stand-Alone Webite?
Hi all! My name is Yehuda and I'm new to this community. There's an issue i'm having trouble with: My site is hosted by Intuit Websites, and I use their Website Builder. Though it has its own domain name, it seems my "site" may just be a subdomain of their intuitwebsites.com website. I'm trying to figure out if my site is actually a stand-alone website, and what ramifications/issues there be in terms of bot crawling & SEO. Does anyone have a thought on this?
Web Design | | Jorge1110 -
Websites with only one "html file" and page href # is good for SEO?
I bought one website from templatemonster that contains only one HTML and the pages are generated by links (PROGRAMACAO) My website: www.nextformaturas.com.br This is good in term of SEO? or it is better an website with deveral pages with diferent contents? What are the pros and cons? I really lost on this.
Web Design | | Naghirniac0 -
What website CMS system would you suggest?
Hello all! Thanks everyone for making my experience with SEOMOZ so far a great one. There are some really awesome folks here answering questions and we obviously have a great community here. Question We host our sites on dedicated servers with Cpanel. We have a new project that will require that users can log in and create a free Website on a sub domain eg. abc.mainwebsite.com or example.mainwebsite.com So the end user will be able to provide their choice of a sub domain. Then the user can create their website, upload their logo and so on for the free site. (Content management controlled by them) What software would you suggest we use for providing this free service? Thank everyone!
Web Design | | webindustry0 -
What do web designers consider to be SEO
I'm putting together an article about Web Designers and SEO. The basic crux is that most designers will at most (if you are lucky) add in title tags, maybe pretty URL's and HTML links and call it SEO friendly. (lot's who don't probably but also lot's who are even worse) Of course I want it to be a bit controversial so please feel free to let rip. My argument is clients who have previously had site's that have had "SEO on them", know think that all SEO is a waste of time as their previous experience didn't produce the traffic and sales they were expecting. I don't know many designers who independently consider a site marketing strategy and how a site is going to generate links in the long term. I'm sure most of us have read this post on SEO responsiblities but becasue the first port of call for most business owners are the web designers, our offering is undermined by their misunderstandings and in some cases mis-sellings. So under the working title, "Why Web Designers Are Bad For SEO", any care to share some imput.
Web Design | | FDC1