USED: SEO and Web Development: Smartphone vs. Desktop

With the explosive expansion in the use of tablet computers and smartphones for use in web searches, why are many SEO experts still focused on desktop development? Is it because developers do not feel the need to duplicate their efforts, or does the answer lie in the clients’ or employers’ unwillingness to tolerate the extra expense?

If more users are searching for businesses while on the go (e.g. local restaurants, car insurance claims, auto towing services, etc.) through their smartphones, wouldn’t it be worth the clients’ investment to accommodate them?

How Search Engines Work

For most major search engines (e.g. Google, Bing, Yahoo!), the process of cataloging pages for its database consists of three parts:

The web crawler, which follows links and sends HTTP queries to the millions of sites around the world
The indexer, which stores all of the relevant content in its database
The query processor, which evaluates a user query and compares it to the stored content.

Traditional SEO

The traditional approach to search engine optimization (SEO) has been to concentrate on keywords, tags and content in order to make a page more relevant to a potential visitor’s queries. In both mobile and desktop search queries, the search engine query function works in a similar manner, so developers and SEO consultants have concentrated on desktop development.

Responsive Design

Developers have previously addressed the issues of duplication of effort by employing a concept called “responsive design”. The task of responsive design is for the recipient of the HTTP request to check for the platform from which the user is sending his or her request, then displaying the page according to that platform. For instance, when a server receives a request from a user on an iPhone, the server may redirect that user to a page that fits that browser and operating system.

Splitting Searches

Many developers who create separate content for desktop and mobile site hold the mobile content either under a different domain (e.g. domain.mobi) or under a subdirectory (e.g. domain.com/mobile). While this solution accommodates the users, it may cause problems for search engines. The duplicate content between the desktop and mobile sites may draw penalties from search engines for spamming. Also, separate domains may split the page’s link equity and decrease page rankings in search results.

Smartphone Web Crawlers

Google has already taken steps to consider how to rank pages tailored for smartphones. In December 2011, Google announced the launch of Googlebot-Mobile, a crawler that employs a smartphone user agent to complement its previous mobile phone user-agents. The mission of Googlebot-Mobile is “to increase our coverage of smartphone content and to provide a better search experience for smartphone users.”

Google’s embrace of smartphone technology also extends to changing its search results to reflect URLs specifically designed for smartphones, which saves the time of a URL redirect from the desktop-specific page its smartphone companion page.

What’s the Answer?

At this stage, the question of mobile vs. desktop SEO does not seem to have a clear-cut answer. The changes at Google are an indication that SEO experts may need to shift their emphasis on mobile development. As the technology evolves and the rules change, developers and SEO consultants will need to adapt accordingly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gerald Hanks has been involved in web development applications since 1996. He has designed applications with JavaScript, ASP.NET and PHP, as well as building databases in MS SQL Server and MySQL. He lives in Houston, Texas.

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Jackweinbender

I’m no expert, but you may wish to double-check your definition of “responsive” design.
- http://www.pixels-paper.nl/ Pixels & Paper
  
  I am very sure it has no other meaning. The definition definitely needs to be rethought. Ironically is developerdrive.com responsive as well…
  - http://www.facebook.com/OwenMelbz Owen Melbourne
    
    the site does seem to be responsive, but by definition it would be referring to the webpage as it is responding to the users device, rather than the webserver responding with a different page ie. website.com/mobile
http://twitter.com/#!/JustinDiMucci Justin DiMucci

I’m going to have to chime in and agree with Jack that you may want to revisit your definition of “Responsive Design”
Tom Bamford

That is definitely an interesting definition of “responsive design”.
Also, I’ve found that the most adopted mobile site URL system is m.domain.com, rarely does one see domain.mobi, or domain.com/mobile
Danno Ferrin

Yo, this isn’t the responsive design I’ve been reading about. Responsive design to me is using the exact same HMTL and CSS but using media queries to move the elements around (or hide/show elements even) for a narrower and/or higher density view. This form of responsive design is fine for SEO since the exact same bits are sent regardless of user agent.
gentlemedia

Yes, what you describe under ‘responsive design. is actually UA sniffing. Responsive design is completely the opposite of that, but I’m not going to write that down here, cause there’s already a lot written about this method on the web.
http://www.freetemplatesonline.com/ Stacy

Oh! Thanks you so much for this post!
http://twitter.com/MarkusThielSv Markus Thiel

You should redefine the part on “Responsive Design”. Responsive design dosent need involve server at all… The content will adjust to fit the current width of the window.