Are clean mobile URL's necessary?
-
Adding code to redirect/clean up ugly URL's slows down mobile site performance, so it is necessary if we are already using rel=alternate tags on our desktop/www pages?
-
No, we were using them for the proper indexing of our mobile pages.
I've instructed our Dev team to continue using clean mobile URLs. I imagine clean URLs would only increase the likelihood of better ranking since it's indexed sooner than the actual page source. Especially with search engines working towards semantic search, it would be natural to assume URL structure would carry some weight.
Thanks for your input, Kristina!
-
Ah, I see, I thought you were using them to point to another mobile page with a "clean" URL.
So, sounds like you've properly connected your mobile and desktop sites. But, using a rel=alternate doesn't mean that the desktop URL replaces the mobile URL when it comes to search. In fact, it means the opposite: Google shows mobile URLs in mobile search results even when it's the desktop version of the site that has the authority to rank as well as it does. Mobile searchers are definitely going to see your "ugly" URL.
As long as you're okay with that (and I don't think that you necessarily shouldn't be), having an ugly mobile URL is fine, just not optimal.
-
This is what I'm referring to: <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" whenever="" a="" spider="" visits="" your="" desktop="" site.="" works="" much="" the="" way="" rel="canonical" does="" for="" mobile="" to="" when="" separate="" url's="" are="" used="" websites="" and="" is="" useful="" responsive="" design="" not="" an="" option="" or="" isn't="" ideal="" company's="" site.<="" p=""></link rel="alternate">
Reference:
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/feature-phones
Separate URLs > Dedicated URLs configuration
-
Hi Recbrands,
Nope. Actually, the importance of clean URLs is dropping as people pay less and less attention to them. They were incredibly important a few years ago, but now, I don't recommend that my clients change their URLs unless they're going through a massive site redesign anyway.
I'm a little worried about your rel=alternate tags, though. What are you using them for? You should only have one location for information, and if you have two, you should use rel=canonical.
Hope this helps!
Kristina
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
-
Need Magento SEO expert for 301 clean up - any reco's?
My site is a total mess from a clean “crawling” perspective. We are still getting traffic and doing business, but I am afraid from an SEO perspective we are driving with the parking brake on. There a lot of 301’s and some of them are causing 404 errors. Below is an overview of my 5 year old magento site which was moved from a 5 year old xcart site (so there is a lot of old junk (url’s) in there). It needs cleaning up and I need a plan and seo / 301 help. Overview: Recently moved from http to https - not sure best practices were followed, but we had lots of crawl issues before this move. Analytics Top 100 Landing Pages = 82.7% of entrances Webmaster Tools 594 Pages Indexed 65 Not found errors - most involve 301’s - examples below Sitemap: 773 Submitted, 395 Indexed URL Parameters - 41 - I can’t tell if they are doing anything (helping or hurting) Moz Crawl Total Pages 3,454 324 Redirect Issues (258 Temp and 66 Chain) Magento 11,773 Redirects 5390 System 6383 Custom On July 15, 2017 I deleted 40 redirects from htaccess that a developer had put there that were causing problems. Blog We have a wordpress blog installed on Magento site. Years ago it was moved from a subdomain to a subdirectory.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SammyT0 -
When rebranding, what's the best thing to do with the new domain before rebranding?
A. Do nothing
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Maxaro.nl
B. Redirect to legacy site (current domain)
C. Create a placeholder with information about the rebranding
D. Other... What do you think is best?0 -
Problem: Magento prioritises product URL's without categories?
HI there, we are moving a website from Shoptrader to Magento, which has 45.000 indexations.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | onlinetrend
yes shoptrader made a bit of a mess. Trying to clean it up now. there is a 301 redirect list of all old URL's pointing to the new one product can exist in multiple categories want to solve this with canonical url’s for instance: shoptrader.nl/categorieA/product has 301 redirect towards magento.nl/nl/categorieA/product shoptrader.nl/categorieA/product-5531 has 301 redirect towards magento.nl/nl/categorieA/product shoptrader.nl/categorieA/product¤cy=GBP has 301 redirect towards magento.nl/nl/categorieA/product shoptrader.nl/categorieB/product has 301 redirect towards magento.nl/nl/categorieB/product, has canonical tag towards magento.nl/nl/categorieA/product shoptrader.nl/categorieB/product?language=nl has 301 redirect towards magento.nl/nl/categorieB/product, has canonical tag towards magento.nl/nl/categorieA/product Her comes the problem:
New developer insists on using /productname as canonical instead of /category/category/productname, since Magento says so. The idea is now to redirect to /category/category/productname and there will be a canonical URL on these pages pointing to /productname, loosing some link juice twice. So in the end indexation will take place on /productname … if Google picks it up the 301 + canonical. Would be more adviseable to direct straight to /productname (http://moz.com/community/q/is-link-juice-passed-through-a-301-and-a-canonical-tag), but I prefer to point to one URL with categories attached. Which has more advantages(?): clear menustructure able to use subfolders in mobile searchresults missing breadcrumb What would you say?0 -
What to do when you buy a Website without it's content which has a few thousand pages indexed?
I am currently considering buying a Website because I would like to use the domain name to build my project on. Currently that domain is in use and that site has a few thousand pages indexed and around 30 Root domains linking to it (mostly to the home page). The topic of the site is not related to what I am planing to use it for. If there is no other way, I can live with losing the link juice that the site is getting at the moment, however, I want to prevent Google from thinking that I am trying to use the power for another, non related topic and therefore run the risk of getting penalized. Are there any Google guidelines or best practices for such a case?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MikeAir0 -
Are This Site's Backlinks Hurting Us?
Google WMT reports more than 198,000 backlinks to our site (www.audiobooksonline.com) from http://dilandau.eu/? We have never been notified by Google of any penalty, malware notification... but continue to struggle to get our page 1 Google ranking back since Panda. Could these backlinks be hurting our Google ranking? Should I implement a disavow rule for http://dilandau.eu/?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | lbohen0 -
How is Google's algorithm evolving in terms of DA vs PA value?
how is Google evolving in terms of value for DA vs PA? Is having a link from a DA 75 + PA 25 better than having a link from a DA 50 + PA 50, assuming such 2 websites are otherwise identical? I have a couple of .EDU backlinks where DA is around 80, though PA 1. Would be DA 40 with a PA 40 be more valuable? I hear Google is placing increasing value on the domain and less on the page authority.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | knielsen
Any insight appreciated thank you0 -
Should I 301 Poorly Worded URL's which are indexed and driving traffic
Hi, I'm working on our sites structure and SEO at present and wondering when the benefit I may get from a well written URL, i.e ourDomain / keyword or keyphrase .html would be preferable to the downturn in traffic i may witness by 301 redirecting an existing, not as well structured, but indexed URL. We have a number of odd looking URL's i.e ourDomain / ourDomain_keyword_92.html alongside some others that will have a keyword followed by 20 underscores in a long line... My concern is although i would like to have a keyword or key phrase sitting on its own in a well targeted URL string I don't want to mess to much with pages that are driving say 2% or 3% of our traffic just because my OCD has kicked in.... Some further advice on strategies i could utilise would be great. My current thinking is that if a page is performing well then i should leave the URL alone. Then if I'm not 100% happy with the keyword or phrase it is targeting I could build another page to handle the new keyword / phrase with the aim of that moving up the rankings and eventually taking over from where the other page left off. Any advice is much appreciated, Guy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | guycampbell0 -
Quicksimpleinsurance.com is not getting any visibility in Bing/Yahoo! Any idea why? It's doing alright on Google.
I have a insurance wordpress blog that is not getting any visibility in Bing/Yahoo! It's roughly 2 years old and has been indexed in all three major search engines. It's doing alright in Google and actually showing some promising rankings. But it's nowhere to be seen on Yahoo!/Bing for any insurance related phrases. Any ideas what's wrong?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chadwickc20