How to get mobile site listed in SERPS?

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How to get mobile site listed in SERPS?

nomis5

11:57 am on Aug 10, 2012 (gmt 0)

There is at least one site (Jamie O. cookery site) which appears in the mobile SERPS with the mobile version of the site as the URL - how have the site managers convinced G to do this?

Specifically, if you look for a recipe in the normal SERPS the site in question shows up with the normal URL. Do the same search from a mobile and the URL appears as m.----. In other words G are showing a different URL in the mobile SERPS based on the mobile version of the site.

I haven't seen this for any other site at all. Not surprising if the site serves up pages based on responsive design because the url will be the same. But this site has two completely differnt urls - one for mobiles and one for the full site. How has G picked up on this and how can i convince them to do the same for my sites?

rainborick

6:03 pm on Aug 10, 2012 (gmt 0)

My understanding is that you need to serve dedicated content to mobile users - specifically feature phone users - to be included in the mobile index. Smartphones (iPhone/Android/etc.) and tablets get served from the main index because they can accommodate conventional webpages. Responsive design simply means that those users will have a better experience.

To get a mobile website included in the mobile index you'll either need to link to it from your primary site, and/or redirect users appropriately - which is the issue I'm dealing with right now. I really prefer smartphones and tablets on the primary site and just redirect feature phones to the mobile site, but I'm not sure how best to do it without having a list of RewriteRules a mile long.

nomis5

9:01 pm on Aug 10, 2012 (gmt 0)

Interesting what you say Rainborick. But first how do you define a feature phone? And for smarthphones (e.g. android as you say) how come their predominantly 320px size display is good for a full site? On most smarthphones my full site, and others I look at, is totally unreadable.

My primary criteria for redirection is screen size - anything less than 400px gets redirected to the mobile site with a clear option for the user to select the main site. I do have a backup of 10 or so speciifc popular smartphones but screen size is the key for me.

About getting listed in the mobile index, it most definitely is not just a matter of having a mobile site and a redirect from the primary site. Take a look at the mobile SERPS and you will see that that in 99% of the cases where a mobile site exists it is not listed in the SERPS. The specific site I mention seems to have unusual treatment.

engine

5:26 pm on Aug 14, 2012 (gmt 0)

>how do you define a feature phone?

Weren't feature phones the basic phone with added features?