|
|
When Responsive Design is Not an Option: a Checklist for Optimizing Your Mobile Site |
When Responsive Design is Not an Option: a Checklist for Optimizing Your Mobile Site Posted: 10 Feb 2013 05:34 PM PST Posted by bridget.randolph Kristina Kledzik recently wrote a post here on the SEOmoz blog about responsive design and why it’s often the best option when creating a mobile-friendly online experience. She discussed its advantages in dealing with usability issues, duplicate content, mobile search rankings, and link building. Google recommends using a responsive website design where this makes sense from a user perspective, and Bing encourages a "one URL per content item" approach. Kristina makes a compelling case for responsive design. However, responsive sites can be tricky to develop, especially if the original desktop version has lots of content and/or navigation options. If you have a business or a client whose site has hundreds of thousands, or even millions of pages, it may be difficult to redesign the entire site with a responsive design. A separate mobile site, however, can start with fewer pages, and you can add more as you have time. For some businesses, responsive design is simply not the best option because their mobile visitors' needs are so different from desktop users, and thus require drastically different content. So we can’t always rely on the advice that responsive design is the preferred solution. Aleyda Solis recently created this flowchart to illustrate the decision-making process for choosing a mobile-friendly option. Below, I’ve highlighted the "separate URL versions" option, which Aleyda recommends for when ‘you cannot implement’ a single URL/responsive design.
If your site (or your client’s) falls in this "separate URL versions" category, you’re in good company. Among the UK’s top 20 retailers, only 14 have mobile-friendly sites, and 13 of them have separate mobile sites. The pattern is similar in the US, with MongooseMetrics reporting that 73% of websites ranked in the Quantcast Top 100,000 sites used URL redirects to a mobile specific URL. Here are a few examples of major retailers' different approaches to mobile:
Apple doesn’t have any type of mobile site; Ebay uses a separate URL mobile site; Currys uses a responsive design. The good news is that mobile sites, when done correctly, are certainly able to handle these same issues of usability, duplicate content, mobile search ranking, and link building. So, how do you optimize a mobile site to work as well as implementing a responsive design? You must ask yourself a few questions before reaching your final goal. Information ArchitectureWhen you’re just starting out, the first thing you need to think about is information architecture. One benefit of a mobile site (over a purely responsive design) is that you can provide the user with a drastically different experience from the desktop version. First, you need to ask some questions: 1. Does your mobile site reflect mobile users’ intent?When structuring a mobile site, one of the first things to ask is whether mobile visitors are interacting with your site differently than desktop users. If so, your mobile site design needs to reflect this. If you’re not sure how your users are interacting with your site, have a look at your analytics and segment out the mobile traffic. Google Analytics already has "advanced segments" for mobile and tablet traffic. The mobile segment includes traffic from tablets, though, so you may need to create a custom segment in order to view only non-tablet mobile traffic. This can be slightly tricky, as you’ll need to use a regular expression (‘RegEx’). The setup I’m using is:
What this regular expression means is that this custom segment should include traffic from mobile devices but exclude traffic from devices with a screen resolution of 700+ by anything. You may decide to tweak the RegEx depending on how large (or small) a device you want to include. (Some of the larger smartphones also fall in this range, but then again, maybe these should be seeing the desktop version, as well.) Once you have the data, focus on landing pages (are people entering your site in the right place?), conversion rate, and where people leave the conversion funnel (where are they getting stuck?); bounce rate (are people not finding what they’re looking for?); and, if possible, site search and organic search keywords (what are people looking for to begin with?). If you have analytics set up for your mobile site, you should use that data in order to see which mobile site pages are performing above or below average. For a detailed overview of what to look for, see Section 3.1: Your Mobile Users in this great article by Aleyda Solis. 2. Have you designed for the user?Once you understand your users’ goals, you should design your site to reflect the most common reasons for visiting the site on a mobile device. An obvious example of this is using a mobile phone to find a store location near you. This feature might be less prominent on the desktop site, but for a mobile user, it should be very easy to find on the homepage. You can also take advantage of mobile-specific features to improve the user experience. Using the same example, you could offer the option of store lookup by postcode, but also by geolocation ("use current location"). When the "nearest store" results come up, include a phone number that is click-to-call.
(Screenshots from m.primelocation.com) 3. What about tablet users?The current recommendation from Google is to serve tablets the desktop site, rather than the mobile site. This is because user browsing patterns and screen size on a regular-sized tablet like the iPad more closely resemble desktop browsing than smartphone browsing. Also, a site that looks great on a small smartphone browser will appear too big and annoyingly grainy on the much larger tablet screen. Be sure to test the touch screen capabilities of your desktop site. An exception to the current guideline would be if you want to provide a tablet-specific online experience, in which case you might decide to use a third subdomain (t.domain.com). As tablet sizes become more varied, this guidance may change. Let's check out some examples of tablet-specific domains: Example one: Colbert Nation is the official site for Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report.
Example two: Mail Tribune is a news publisher.
It's important to make sure your mobile visitors are being served the correct version of your website. My best advice is to use redirects based on user agent. If you're not redirecting based on user agent, you should set up redirects based on user agent detection, so that when someone visits the desktop site on a mobile, they are redirected to the mobile version. If possible, use server-side redirects (301s or 302s) rather than Javascript redirects; JS causes a lag in the load time (because the page has to load and then parse the JS), and a page with a Javascript redirect is less likely to be cached. Also, make sure that if someone on a desktop PC clicks a mobile link, they will be redirected to the desktop version. A few quick tips for handling redirects to mobile site:
Google AnalyticsOnce you’re happy with the structure of your site, you need to be able to track its usage. Jeff Tirey at Mongoose Metrics recently wrote about their fantastic study which found that on 37% of websites that are a) using Google Analytics, and b) also have separate mobile versions of their site, the mobile version is not being tracked! This is craziness. And it’s simple to fix. 1. Is your tracking code implemented properly?If you simply haven’t added the tracking code to your mobile site, go do it now. If you aren't sure whether to use the special non-Javascript version, keep in mind that you should be able to ignore the special "tracking a mobile site" option. Instead, you should use the same Javascript code that you use on your desktop site. The (rare) exception to this would be if you have a disproportionately high amount of traffic from feature phone (non-smartphone) users that you need to track. Feature phones don’t support Javascript, so the normal tracking code can’t track these visits. However, this is an unlikely situation, as most websites don’t see much traffic from these types of phones. If you are worried about it, you can check the site’s server logs for visits from feature phone user agents. 2. Is your mobile site data being tracked through your primary domain?You should track your mobile site on the same web property (i.e., using the same UA-XXXXX-Y account number) as your desktop site. This requires a simple tweak in the code on both versions in order to indicate to GA that your m.domain.com site is a subdomain of your main site. You should also set up a special profile exclusively for traffic to m.domain.com. To learn more, check out these tips from Google: Technical SEO1. Do you have a mobile XML sitemap?Even if you have a mobile HTML sitemap, it is best practice to create an XML sitemap for your mobile site, and submit it to Google and Bing. To learn more about how to create a mobile sitemap, check out this these instructions from the Google Webmaster Tools blog. 2. How will Google know it’s a mobile site and not duplicate content?To make sure Google know's your mobile site is a separate entity from your main site, it's best to implement the special mobile rel=canonical tag. In order to indicate to Google that your mobile site isn’t just duplicate content, you can use a special version of the rel=canonical tag. On the desktop page, add the rel=alternate tag: < <link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)" href="http://m.example.com/page-1" > This tag will point to the mobile version. On the mobile page, add the rel=canonical tag: <link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/page-1" > This tag will point to the desktop version. Simple as that! 3. Make sure you’re not blocking the ‘Smartphone-Googlebot’ from your desktop version in robots.txt, and don't block regular Googlebot from the mobile version.Bing is a bit more ambiguous in their advice (from March 2012): "Occasionally, it may make sense to keep some URLs targeted at specific clients (e.g. mobile devices), which you can opt to block from us via the usual methods (robots.txt, webmaster tools) or not." (The emphasis is mine.) Since the guidance is unclear, I would recommend the less drastic approach. My advice is to allow Bing to crawl your mobile and desktop sites. You can opt to follow my recommendation...or not. On-page Optimization1. Are your meta tags mobile-friendly?Since mobile screens are smaller, there are fewer characters displayed in the SERPs. To adapt to the smaller screen size, it's important that your meta tags be formatted in a mobile-friendly style. For the best results, your title tags should be kept within 40-60 characters. Similarly, meta descriptions should be kept within 90 characters. 2. Are you targeting mobile-friendly keywords?It's becoming increasingly important to do your keyword research specifically for mobile traffic. Mobile visitors will likely be looking for different results than desktop visitors, so you must lay the groundwork properly. Optimizing the content on your mobile site for mobile keywords is also a great way to rank highly in the mobile SERPs (this may or may not be necessary, depending on whether they’re different from your desktop site). 3. Is your site load time too slow?The goal for your site load time should be around 2-3 seconds. After waiting five seconds for a page to load, 74% of mobile users bounce. You can check your page load time in Google Analytics. Use your mobile site profile (often the desktop load time is vastly different, which will mess up the averages). If you don’t yet have the data in a separate mobile site profile, you can also check this using your custom segment for non-tablet mobile devices. Another way to increase you site load speed is to compress large images. Be sure to check other on-page elements, such as Javascript and videos, with a mobile emulator like Google’s Gomometer. Remember that certain formats, such as Flash, aren’t displayed on most mobile phones, so be conginzant of what works and what doesnt. Also, remember to be careful with Javascript in order to use the correct approach for your design. ExtrasI've thrown in a few extra pieces of advice for those of you who made it this far. Keep on reading! 1. Are you missing out on easy eCommerce wins (if applicable)?To keep your conversion rate optimization on track, here are a few points to consider:
2. Where appropriate, are you using structured data markup?Where it makes sense, use appropriate markup on your desktop and mobile sites. This should allow rich snippets to appear in mobile SERPs. 3. Is your mobile site optimised for local search?Approximately 40% of mobile search is local. There are two big ways to take advantage of this fact:
4. Is your video content optimised for mobile viewing?Video is one of the most common things people do on their mobile devices. To make the process as easy as possible, consider the following:
Well there you have it, folks! Hopefully this list will come in handy for those who want to optimize a mobile site. Did you find this information helpful? What kinds of experiences have you had in this area? What other tips and tools would you add to this list? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read! |
You are subscribed to email updates from SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |
Quite intentionally, all Cadbury Fruit and Nut bars are identical.
No one says, "oh, this one is really special, Brian made it."
What industrialists do: They dehumanize what they make, so it is the brand and the organization and the factory that is known and trusted, not the person on the line. (This is not always a bad thing--there are many items where consumers prefer perfect instead of human).
The outcome of this effort is that employees are fungible commodities, as long as they are able and willing to follow the manual. That's all well and good if you're the owner (or if you need a reliable supply of chocolate), but it doesn't play out so well for the worker, particularly in a society with ever-faster-shifting job slots.
The only alternative is to humanize our work. To create something that only you could have made, or said, or conceived of. When it looks and feels like you, when you are the trusted source (not an anonymous trademark) then you are on the spot, under pressure and deservedly valued.
[You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog.]
Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.
Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 |
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
'Sequester' Fearmongering by Obama and Republicans Posted: 10 Feb 2013 04:28 PM PST Republicans don't want military spending cuts and Democrats don't want cuts in social programs. The best thing to do would be doubling or tripling the cuts, but compromise tends to work in the other direction. Thus one should not be surprised by this can-kicking idea: Republicans Propose Job Freeze to Avert Defense Cuts Republican members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees revived a proposal to avert automatic spending cuts by reducing the federal workforce through attrition and freezing congressional salaries.Sequestration a Brainchild of Republicans Excuse me for pointing out the truth: Sequestration is a brainchild of a Republican House. Instead of accepting 10-1 spending cuts to tax hikes that was on the table last year, Republicans kicked the can to 2013 believing Romney to be a shoo-in for president. It did not work out that way, as I warned at the time. Now, Obama's "I am willing to make hard choices" offer is off the table (assuming of course it was ever really on the table). Now Republicans whine about the automatic spending cuts to the military that they agreed to (expecting them to go away under Romney). And in the meantime, Republicans accepted a boatload of tax hikes and got absolutely nothing in return. Defense Cut Fearmongering Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stepped up to the plate, fearmongering about the defense cuts. "My fear is that there is a dangerous and callous attitude that is developing among some Republicans and some Democrats that these dangerous cuts can be allowed to take place in order to blame the other party for the consequences," said Panetta. It's long overdue we get rid of Neanderthals like Panetta, so I look forward to the appointment of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Meanwhile, Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire got into the act with the message "Our defense should not be used as a bargaining chip because of other policy aspirations". Senator Kelly is another hypocrite that wants more military spending but no tax hikes to pay for them. Tax Rift Hardens as Sequester Nears Fearmongering of another sort is now making mainstream media waves. For example, please consider this headline news story: Tax Rift Hardens as 'Sequester' Nears A rift over how to replace the automatic budget cuts known as "sequestration" hardened on Sunday, as Democratic and Republican leaders clashed over including tax increases in any proposal to replace the looming spending reductions set to kick in on March 1.Fearmongering by Both Parties Both parties, as expected, are now in on the fearmongering act. Recall that the spending cuts via sequestration were scheduled only because the parties could not agree on any budget cuts last year. They still cannot agree this year even though "We've got a spending problem, everybody knows it". It's only February 10. The sequestration cuts occur on March 1. In political terms that date is the equivalent of light-years away (yes I know light years are a measure of distance). My point is there is still plenty of time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Victory is sequestration, the best possible outcome. But don't count on it. Following still more fear-mongering by both parties, another do-nothing can-kicking compromise is likely. Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
Europe à l’Hollandaise; Socialists Who Wrecked France, Demand the Same for Rest of Eurozone Posted: 10 Feb 2013 09:38 AM PST It's crystal clear Hollande's disastrous socialist policies are not working for France. The solution should be obvious, scrap the policies. Instead, Hollande wants a grand harmonization with the rest of Europe following the lead of France into the gutter. Please consider Europe à l'Hollandaise, François Hollande's flawed vision for Europe. LEADERS keep talking about the future of Europe, yet none seems able to offer a clear vision. Angela Merkel speaks vaguely of the need for greater "Europeanisation of national powers". David Cameron, by contrast, wants a renationalisation of European powers—though without being too specific. This week it was François Hollande's turn to speak about destiny. His concept, as set out in a speech to the European Parliament on February 5th, is to extend French dirigiste and socialist ideas to Europe, even where they cannot be applied to France itself.Apparently, "If it's bad enough for France, it's good enough for the rest of Europe". Can someone, anyone, explain how all the differing opinions about what's good for Europe can possibly work (or even be approved). Mike "Mish" Shedlock http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific. |
You are subscribed to email updates from Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |
SEO Blog |
Posted: 10 Feb 2013 10:11 AM PST SEO Overkill Many website owners are focusing on the wrong aspects of their SEO and finding it difficult to climb the rankings in Google for their targeted keywords or even losing valuable rankings. SEO is not complicated and you should not focus on just one aspect as most people do,... |
5 Basic Principles You Should Apply Into Your Interaction With Your Employees Posted: 10 Feb 2013 04:50 AM PST In order to yield the best results in any organization, employers need to device means and motivation strategies to ensure they retain their employees. They are the greatest asset one could ever have in their company. In whatever setting, workers require something to keep them going. In most cases, a... |
How To Get More Blog Traffic Through SEO Posted: 10 Feb 2013 12:44 AM PST Search engine optimization is that little tricky thing that many bloggers fail to adopt on their blog on regular basis. I will admit that in beginning I was one of those blogger who don't practice SEO on their blog but after reading this article you will come to know that... |
Posted: 09 Feb 2013 11:45 PM PST According to Alexa LinkedIn is the 16th most visited website on earth. Most of the searches are for people trying to develop partnerships, find employees, jobs, vendors, customers, and internships. So you've created a LinkedIn account for networking, an online resume, job searching, or to connect with potential employees. Let's... |
You are subscribed to email updates from SEO Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |