Mobile Redirect - Cloaking/Sneaky?

[Jose_R]

Question since Google is somewhat vague on what they consider mobile "equivalent" content. This is the hand we're dealt with due to budget, no m.dot, etc, responsive/dynamic is on the roadmap but still a couple quarters away but, for now, here's the situation.

We have two sets of content and experiences, one for desktop and one for mobile. The problem is that desktop content does not = mobile content. The layout, user experience, images and copy aren't the same across both versions - they are not dramatically different but not identical. In many cases, no mobile equivalent exists.

Dev wants to redirect visitors who find the desktop version in mobile search to the equivalent mobile experience, when it exists, when it doesn't they want to redirect to the mobile homepage - which really isn't a homepage it's an unfiltered view of the content. Yeah we have push state in place for the mobile version etc.

My concern is that Google will look at this as cloaking, maybe not in the cases where there's a near equivalent piece of content, but definitely when we're redirecting to the "homepage". Not to mention this isn't a great user experience and will impact conversion/engagement metrics which are likely  factors Google's algorithm considers.

What's the MOZ Community say about this? Cloaking or Not and Why?

Thanks!

[BlueprintMarketing]

if there is not a valid mobile version you should not force the mobile version to be used it will not benefit you it will hurt you in fact. when you do have a 100% mobile friendly version you can utilize the tactics below

Different methods apex records or Aname records /Cname flattening whatever you want to call it can do the trick as well as see below.

Cname flattening

https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200168336-About-CloudFlare-Mobile-Redirect

"All mobile traffic to example.com (the root/zone apex) and www.example.com is redirected to the mobile-optimized home page. Those records (root and www) must have CloudFlare's performance service enabled ("orange cloud" in the DNS Settings) for the redirect to be active."

Add

https://varvy.com/mobile/vary-user-agent.html

Vary: User-Agent

Desktop page

Mobile page

• See:

• https://varvy.com/mobile/#urls

• https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/separate-urls

• https://varvy.com/mobile/

• https://moz.com/community/q/how-to-use-canonical-with-mobile-site-to-main-site

T1l05HK.png

[BlueprintMarketing]

"Dev wants to redirect visitors who find the desktop version in mobile search to the equivalent mobile experience, when it exists, when it doesn't they want to redirect to the mobile homepage - which really isn't a homepage it's an unfiltered view of the content. Yeah we have push state in place for the mobile version etc."

Tell your developer absolutely not and create the multiple versions of the site then redirect them properly if he does what is stated below your site will lose visitors and Google will be less than happy.

I strongly suggest that you tell him no. The only thing he has right is redirect to the mobile version if it exists. If it does not exist do not redirect  to the homepage or any page UNLESS IT IS THE mobile version of that original page.

If they find it via search Google has already deemed it not mobile friendly any URLs that are up for debate place through this: https://varvy.com/mobile/ and you will have your answer brother their mobile friendly or not

if there is not a valid mobile version you should not force the mobile version to be used it will not benefit you it will hurt you in fact.

[Jose_R]

Thanks Thomas, I've pushed back and said no, part of my original SEO requirement was to eliminate the blanket redirect but there's always pushback and wanted to have more ammo in my back pocket.

Definitely will be implementing vary http header, etc when we do have mobile version. I did not know about the apex/ CNAME/ Aname, I appreciate the tip.

[jrpare]

Thomas
great info above, quick follow up question for you.....

I have always wonder why is Google using the "640px" in the   ?
many people have been asking the question lately if 640px is an old example or is it the required size? (phones are larger nowaway)

the website I manage are non-responsive ocated in a /mobile/ folder such as: http://www.example.com/mobile/page1 
and our mobile size cut off is actually 1023px.

.... should we be using 640 or 1023px in the rel="alternate"  tag?
thank you!