How to avoid duplicate content on a mobile site?

Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi

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How to avoid duplicate content on a mobile site?

ExpertHelpRequire

11:11 pm on Oct 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Hello Team,

I am going to develop mobile site with .mobi domain name.

Many content on my .com website may be similar on .mobi website.

How can I tell google that this .mobi is my site only and that is design for mobile visitors.

What I can make sure that I don't come under duplicate content penalty?

Is there any other preconditions I need to make during development of mobile site?

Is it good idea to create .mobi site or it will be good idea to create domain name / mobile sub folder?

Thank you

doc_z

7:18 am on Oct 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

To avoid duplicate content you can use the canonical tag. If you're going to create a separate site I would suggest a subdomain (m.example.com).

In my opinion the better way is to redesign your page using a responsive design.

ckilgs

3:29 pm on Oct 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

I'm with doc_z on this one. Go responsive (seems to be a viable solution most of the time).

netmeg

5:04 pm on Oct 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

You pretty much have to know how users use your site and whether they will use it the same way on their phones to make the decision about how to implement mobile. I went responsive design on everything, but I have seen situations where it wasn't the best solution.

Robert Charlton

7:37 pm on Oct 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

I went responsive design on everything, but I have seen situations where it wasn't the best solution.

netmeg - Any easy way to generalize about what situations responsive design wasn't the best way to go?

netmeg

8:34 pm on Oct 8, 2013 (gmt 0)

I guess the easy way to explain it - first you have to figure out the user behavior on each device, and then you have to come up with a way to arrange it properly for the users on each device. And responsive design may not always lend itself to that.

For my event sites, the desktop users love the pics and videos, but the mobile users are usually out driving around (hopefully not drunk) and all they want is what / when / where. I was able to use responsive design to get the pics and video out of the way on phones and tablets - they're still there, but further down. The ads that monetize the sites were an issue, but more ad networks are coming on board with responsive ads.

For one of my B2B clients, his ecommerce site gets almost no smartphone traffic (although we do have a smartphone version) but a lot of tablet traffic, and most of those users are existing customers that go directly to re-order something they've bought before. And a lot of their products are complicated, with customizations and thousands of options and variations. So we had to build something that adapted to that behavior, was powered by the same platform (and I dunno if there's such a thing as a Magento store with a responsive design, but the very idea gives me the sloppy swish) and put the emphasis on the attributes we wanted. Couldn't use RWD there.

It really all hinges on user behavior, tempered with your existing platform and other factors (like if you're monetizing with ads) I'm totally pro responsive design, when it works, but sometimes it's just not the best solution, or the practical one.