Mobile site ranking instead of/as well as desktop site in desktop SERPS

[pugh]

I have just noticed that the mobile version of my site is sometimes ranking in the desktop serps either instead of as well as the desktop site. It is not something that I have noticed in the past as it doesn't happen with the keywords that I track, which are highly competitive.

It is happening for results that include our brand name, e.g '[brand name][search term]'. The mobile site is served with mobile optimised content from another URL. e.g wwww.domain.com/productpage redirects to m.domain.com/productpage for mobile.

Sometimes I am only seen the mobile URL in the desktop SERPS, other times I am seeing both the desktop and mobile URL for the same product.

My understanding is that the mobile URL should not be ranking at all in desktop SERPS, could we be being penalised for either bad redirects or duplicate content?

Any ideas as to how I could further diagnose and solve the problem if you do believe that it could be harming rankings?

[Clickatell2]

Hi

My suggestion to you is to have one website which is Responsive (http://mashable.com/2012/12/11/responsive-web-design/)

This would prevent your traffic from being diluted to a mobi and desktop site but rather serve uses with one website that is optimised for all. This goes hand  in hand with the user experience. UX and SEO works together.

Create a responsive desktop site and redirect the mobi site to it.

Hope this helps

[artdivision]

Hello, I agree with Lesley here. Google stated recently that: “Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices.“

take a minute from your time and read this article, am sure you will find it useful http://www.atladasmedia.co.uk/blog/why-google-loves-responsive-design/

[pugh]

Yea it's not that easy to just implement a responsive design unfortunately otherwise I would. That is the long term goal but not a realistic option at the moment, so in the meantime I need to solve the problem described.

[bridget.randolph]

Hi Pugh,

It sounds like you haven't implemented the rel=canonical tag for mobile. This tag works a bit like the hreflang tag, namely it prevents your mobile site from being viewed as duplicate content and should mean that your mobile URL is displayed in mobile SERPs and your desktop URL is displayed in desktop SERPs.

To implement (for more info see https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/details

on the desktop page, add:

and on the **corresponding **mobile page, the required annotation should be:

This rel="canonical" tag on the mobile URL pointing to the desktop page is required.

Make sure you are referencing the corresponding URLs (so www.example.com/xyz and m.example.com/xyz, rather than simply referencing the mobile homepage).

Hope that helps!

[pugh]

Hi Bridget,

Thanks for your response. Since asking the question I have implemented the advice that you offer.

Should there also be a rel=alternate and rel=canonical on the corresponding homepages?

[bridget.randolph]

Hi Pugh,

Glad to hear it! Yes, you should also implement the tag on your homepages.