Redirect Script: The Double Edged Sword of Mobile SEO

Getting the right user to the site that’s optimised for them has long been a challenge to web designers everywhere (we all know the issues with different browsers versions) and this is only going to get worse with the continued growth of the mobile web and mobile sites.

Desktop/Static users need to be directed to your main page, if they end up on your mobile site the bounce rate will be huge. Conversely mobile users ideally need to be directed to your mobile site; however it’s not such big issue if they land on normal site (I know some people who actually prefer it).

One widely used method way of making sure mobile users land on the right site is the use of script which detects the user agent and sends them to wherever you want (in a mobile users case, your mobile site). There are several advantages to doing this which I’ll look at closely below; however there are sever dangers that generally aren’t considered which I want to highlight in this blog post.

Advantages

The main advantage of using the script is that it’s easy and fast to implement. If you’re not bothered about growing traffic on your mobile site or you have no budget this is a great option. The other advantage is that as you’re directed as soon as a mobile user hits your site if you’re ranking highly on several competitive keywords, your site will be picked up by mobile users.

Disadvantages

I’ve seen loads of sites totally relying on this script, not bothering to perform any SEO what so ever. My bugbear with this is that as you’re relying on Desktop/Static Keywords to get mobile users on your site you’re totally missing out on all those mobile keywords people are searching for. I’ve drawn a diagram to show what I mean:

Another issue I’ve had with scripts is that they sometimes redirect you to the homepage of the mobile site rather than the page you were searching for. Not only is this frustrating for the user, decreasing their opinion of your site but it will ultimately lead to users looking elsewhere.

I mentioned above that some mobile users just don’t like mobile sites and will always try and navigate to the main site. As most script blankets sites, these kinds of users will have a hard time being able to access the normal site.

Best Practice

So what should a web master to make sure that mobile users are going to the right site while not missing out on opportunities, should you remove script all together?

No; however you need to be clever about how you use it, here are some simple tips:

• Don’t forget to optimise:  Just because using script is easy is no excuse for not optimising your mobile site, just think about all the mobile specific words you’re missing out on. Use traditional on and off page SEO practices to make sure your ranking well with your mobile site without having to rely on the script. If your sites optimised enough you may even get two listings on a front page of a SERP which can’t be bad.
• Use script on competitive keywords: As script effectively lets you piggy back off your main site, consider writing content that will rank highly in competitive keywords you just can’t touch on your mobile site. By using the authority and link juice from your main site, ranking highly, then directing mobile users to a page you want to push you can get a advantage over other mobile sites.
• Make sure script matches pages up: If a mobile user is specifically searching for something, give it to them, they don’t want to be redirected to the homepage of a site that doesn’t have information on they’re looking for. Match up pages on your normal site to the ones on your mobile site, if you don’t have an equivalent, make one (what are you using your mobile site for anyway). If you don’t think it’s appropriate or don’t have the resource to do it then don’t put redirecting script on that page link.
• Use Analytics to tweak script use:  following on from above, find pages that just aren’t working for mobile users and do something about it. What pages have the highest bounce rates on your site? Where is the traffic coming from? Find out why there are problems and tweak your script accordingly.
• Try not to force mobile users: some mobile users will want to see the normal version of the site, let them. One thing you can do is to interlink your pages between the two sites, a great example of this is http://mobithinking.com/ look at the top left for their “Switch to our mobile site button”; there’s the opposite when you go through to the mobile site at the bottom of the page.
• Be smart with your script: similar to the point above, use your script to filter people who want to view the whole page. Create a custom script that lets Opera Mini customers go to your normal site rather than the mobile site, and even send android/iphone users to pages designed around their screen sizes.

 

Like the title of the blog says, redirect script is a double edge sword; it has the power to dramatically improve traffic to your mobile site or drive your mobile customers away. Use the best practices I suggested and you’ll be on the way to getting a happy mobile user.