Mobile Subdomain or Subdirectory

Many popular websites choose to put a mobile version of their site in a subdomain or subdirectory on their primary domain. This prevents users from having to remember a new domain and allows the mobile pages to benefit from the traffic, links, history, and keyword rankings that the main site has with search engines. This is beneficial because it means that the mobile website does not have to start from scratch and can begin attracting traffic from mobile search engines much faster.

Mobile subdomains and subdirectories are relatively easy to create, and the content on the mobile pages can be easily tailored to fit smaller mobile screens. There is no consensus in the mobile SEO community on whether a subdomain or subdirectory is more desirable, and this is discussed more later. Other than SEO value, little difference exists between mobile subdomains and mobile subdirectories, except for their expression in the URL.

You can essentially copy your site and put it in the subdomain or subdirectory, and then start formatting the content for the smaller screens of mobile phones. You can name the subdomain or subdirectory any way you like, but the most common mobile designations are mobile, m, mobi, wap, and mob.

Subdomains

Subdomains are subsections of your website that are represented in the URL with the name of the subdirectory, then a dot (.), and then the full domain name. For example, www.Ruters.com has its mobile site on a subdirectory called mobile, so the URL to access the mobile content is www.mobile.Reuters.com. All mobile content on the site is hosted in the mobile subdomain. Many SEOs believe that mobile subdomains are likely preferred over mobile subdirectories in search results because they are a more intuitive break or differentiation in the site.

Subdirectories

Subdirectories are sometimes called folders or subfolders. They operate in much the same way subdomains do, but they are represented differently in the URL. The BizJournals.com website has a mobile subdirectory called mobile, so the URL for the mobile content is www.BizJournals.com/mobile. All the mobile content on the site is hosted in the mobile subdirectory. Many SEOs believe that mobile subdirectories are better than subdomains because they allow more of the search engine value that is given to the domain to pass down to the content in the subfolder.

One of the benefits of this approach is the capability to tailor content that eliminates unnecessary components and controls the mobile user experience. In many cases, you might want to eliminate elements from the traditional site that would take a long time to download on a mobile phone or might create rendering problems. You can also simplify the page layout by organizing everything in one column with well-marked headings.

The main drawback of this approach is that creates a duplicate content risk with the search engines, which is discussed more in Chapter 10. The other substantial disadvantage to this strategy is the duplication of overhead and effort required to maintain the site. Each time a change is made to the traditional website, it likely has to be made again on the mobile site; with sites that have rapidly changing Web content, this can be quite cumbersome.

Continue reading here: Tracking Mobile SEO and Keyword Rankings

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