International SEO Mobile directory

[ggpaul562]

I was wondering,

What if I went with international sub-directory route (not ccTLD), for example: sitename.com/fr (fr being france)...But the question is, what's the best practice for MOBILE?sitename.com/mobile/frORsitename.com/fr/mobileORm.sitename.com/fr Again, ccTLD is not an option (currently, sites are in ccTLD but we are now transitioning to sub folders)Now, the next question is WHY is it best practices for it to be sitename.com/mobile/fr or sitename.com/fr/mobile or m.sitename.com/fr ? Please cite source. Thanks!

[BasKierkels]

Hi Jarred,

Why would you want a seperate URL for the mobile site? Why wouldn't you want the site to be responsive? That way, you don't have to think about a different URL.

And you don't have to worry about duplicate content.

Or is responsiveness not possible?

Bas

[ggpaul562]

Exactly. It's more of an internal issue where we won't be able to do that..

[BasKierkels]

Ok. To be able to score valuable positions at the searsh engines, without responsiveness is going to be very difficult.

You can decide for yourself what structure you will create for non-mobile and mobile content.

As long as it is clear that you are separating the two without creating duplicate content.

Make sure you use the canonical tag for that.

Bas

[ggpaul562]

The /mobile/ version will be a responsive design.

What I want to know is if there's an affect of what comes first...  mobile/fr or fr/mobile?

what would be better for International?

[BasKierkels]

Hi Paul,

Both are a bit unconventional.

If you would use .com/fr/mobile/ then the mobile version would become part of the regular site.

if you would use .com/mobile/fr/ you would basically do the same but with the default language, non-mobile version of the site.

You would have to make absolutely sure that you ise your canonical tags to prevent duplicate content. This setup might be more difficult to check and maintain.

I would therefore never use this setup but go for "mobile.domain.com/fr/". This way both structures are clearly separated. You would still have to make sure you use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content but at least this way the mobile and non-mobile version are clearly separated.

Bas