Mobile websites are becoming more important than ever. Google has begun to research and ranking mobile friendly websites higher than those that are not. However, it is still unknown how they are looking all the variations of “mobile” websites.
Here are the 3 versions that Google currently considers mobile:
- Responsive web design: Delivers the same HTML code with the same URL no matter what the users’ device (desktop, tablet, mobile, non-visual browser), but will show the visual and/or respond differently, based on the screen size. Responsive design is Google’s recommended design pattern.
- Dynamic serving: Has the same URL for every device, but delivers a different version of HTML for each device type, based on what the server knows about the user’s browser.
- Separate URLs: Delivers different code to each device, and on separate URLs. This configuration tries to detect the users’ device, then redirects to the appropriate page using HTTP redirects along with the Vary HTTP header.
Responsive is Google’s preference and recommended moving forward. So, if you do not have multiple versions of a website already and are deciding which method to go with, we would recommend this one.
What about the m.yourwebsite.com?
For the changes continuing to be made, I would recommend updating the framework of your website to make it so you no longer need both.
Look at it this way: Google looks for unique and changing content as two of the ranking factors. If you have 2 websites with the same content, than it is possible you could be penalized for this. While there are ways to prevent this, it is not to say that Google will not eventually require them to be different or will only rank one of the two.
Also, wouldn’t it be easier to only worry about content on one domain?
If you want to look further at the details, you can go to: https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/
If you would rather have someone else deal with it, please feel free to contact us or go to our website services page.