Mobile Meta Descriptions?
-
Hi Guys,
We have two different versions of each page for both desktop and mobile example:
We want to create meta descriptions for both versions. However in the CMS (http://www.mantistech.com.au/ecommerce_website_package.aspx) it only allows one meta description. Example: http://s21.postimg.org/ar8bzrh3r/screenshot_1804.jpg
Does anyone know anyway around this? To add two different meta descriptions and tell Google which one to use based on device type.
Thanks.
-
Sitemap is little bit tricky. There isn't free tool that make sitemaps with desktop/mobile annotations. That's why you need to talk with CMS authors and they to make plugin for it. Or outsource to 3rd party.
Same is with desktop/mobile linking. It's much better if they make this change.
-
Thanks Peter!
In the google developer guidelines it mentions:
On the desktop page, add a special link rel=”alternate” tag pointing to the corresponding mobile URL. This helps Googlebot discover the location of your site’s mobile pages.
On the mobile page, add a link rel=”canonical” tag pointing to the corresponding desktop URL.
On this CMS there seems to be one version of each page then it creates two versions: mobile + desktop.
It mentions you need both, one on the desktop and one on the mobile version.
So i guess the only solution would be adding the annotations to the sitemap, which would manually need to be done for every new page? I wonder if there're any tools which can help with this.
-
You can't add two meta descriptions and there isn't workaround. Seems as CMS limitation.
BUT! There is something much more scary - you have lot of duplicate content because you have two versions of each page. You can fix it with adding on mobile version canonical to the desktop version. And you must put rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" on desktop with link to mobile version. Everything is described very clear here:
https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/separate-urls
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
-
How does product category description affect SEO?
Hi - we are a website that sells tours. We have category pages that list the tours in that category (by city, by length of time, theme, etc). At the top of each category page, before the buttons linking to the tours, there is a category description. It is a pretty long paragraph. We are redesigning the website and think it would look nicer to show 2-3 lines of text and then have a down arrow and 'read' more so people can click and it would expand to show the full category description if they want to read it and it won't take up so much room that way. My question is - will this affect SEA at all? Or because the text is still there, just hidden, it won't do anything? Our site ranks very high in organic searches on google and we do not want to do anything that will hurt SEO. thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Shirapn0 -
Where to point canonical for m-dot site in the wake of Mobile-First Indexing
My client currently use an m-dot URL for their mobile site and while conducting a technical audit for their web properties, we have noticed that their desktop is using a self-referencing rel="canonical" while their mobile m-dot has no rel="canonical" tags. While our initial recommendation is to point the mobile m-dot point to the desktop using a rel="canonical" and the desktop point to the mobile using a rel="alternative," there have been hesitations about mobile first indexing and canonical tags. If Google will use the m-dot for indexing purposes moving forward, is the progressive recommendation to have the desktop point to the m-dot using a rel="canonical" and the m-dot point to the desktop using a rel="alternative" or to maintain the initially stated recommendation?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Derek_Hawk0 -
Does google index the mobile version or the desktop version?
We use different headlines and text on our mobile site vs. the desktop. Our desktop headlines and text is highly optimized for SEO purposes, but because of user experience and space limitations the headlines and text on the mobile version isn't great for SEO. I'm wondering, what will google look at and will it make a difference? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Postable0 -
Different content on different mobile browsers
Is it ok to run different html & different content on different mobile browsers even though the url is same. or the site can get penalize ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
Index or noindex mobile version?
We have a website called imones.lt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | FCRMediaLietuva
and we have a mobile version for it m.imones.lt We originally put noindex for m.imones.lt. Is it a good decision or no? We believe that if google indexes both it creates double content. We definitely don't want that? But when someone through google goes to any of imones.lt webpage using smartphone they are redirected to m.imones.lt/whatever Thank you for your opinion.0 -
Duplicate Meta Descriptions in Press Releases
We have a client that does multiple press releases a year. One issue we noticed is that every press release has the same meta description tag and the duplicates are starting to really add up. Unfortunately the client does not want to create specialized meta descriptions for new press releases due to legal restrictions (every new meta description must be reviewed). What should we do about this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RosemaryB0 -
Is a 404, then a meta refresh 301 to the home page OK for SEO?
Hi Mozzers I have a client that had a lot of soft 404s that we wanted to tidy up. Basically everything was going to the homepage. I recommended they implement proper 404s with a custom 404 page, and 301 any that really should be redirected to another page. What they have actually done is implemented a 404 (without the custom 404 page) and then after a short delay 301 redirected to the homepage. I understand why they want to do this as they don't want to lose the traffic, but is this a problem with SEO and the index? Or will Google treat as a hard 404 anyway? Many thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chammy0 -
Mobile Sitemap Best Practices w/ Responsive Design
I'm looking for insight into mobile sitemap best practices when building sites with responsive design. If a mobile site has the same urls as the desktop site the mobile sitemap would be very similar to the regular sitemap. Is a mobile sitemap necessary for sites that utilize responsive design? If so, is there a way to have a mobile sitemap that simply references the regular sitemap or is a new sitemap that has all urls tagged with the "" tag with each url required?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AdamDorfman0