M.ExampleSite vs mobile.ExampleSite vs ExampleSite.com

[94501]

Hi,

I have a call with a potential client tomorrow where all I know is that they are wigged-out about canonicalization, indexing and architecture for their three sites:

m.ExampleSite.com

mobile.ExampleSite.com

ExampleSite.com

The sites are pretty large... 350k for the mobiles and 5 million for the main site. They're a retailer with endless products. They're main site is not mobile-responsive, which is evidently why they have the m and mobile sites. Why two, I don't know.

This is how they currently hand this:

What would you suggest they do about this? The most comprehensive fix would be making the main site mobile responsive and 301 the old mobile sub domains to the main site. That's probably too much work for them. So, what more would you suggest and why?

Your thoughts? Best... Mike

P.S.,

Beneath my hand-drawn portrait avatar above it says "Staff" at this moment, which I am not. Some kind of bug I guess.

[DonnaDuncan]

Michael,

I read a helpful article that touched on this exact topic yesterday. It's https://www.searchenginejournal.com/mobile-first-index-actually-mean/178017/ . As you've already pointed out, a responsive solution is best, but if the website's mobile and desktop content are the same, you may not have to do anything right away.

Check it out.

[94501]

Hi Donna,

Thanks for the insight and resource. What do you think of while waiting for the next year mobile responsive site, to 301 the two existing mobile sites to the desktop site? How would one begin to estimate the effect of that? Thanks, again.

Best... Mike

[DonnaDuncan]

What you have to weigh is the user impact. How much traffic are you currently getting from mobile devices? Will the desktop version of the website look awful, be hard to interact with or understand on a mobile phone or tablet device? You'll also lose the "mobile friendly" designation which might lower your rankings and click-thru rates.

It's a trade-off decision only you can make.

PS - I don't see "Staff" under your cool avatar.

[94501]

Hi Donna,

Thanks for the speedy reply. Yes, the thing that makes me nervous about that recommendation from the article is how do I even begin to weigh the odds on it being a net gain and then convey it to management? I mean, it's one thing for me to think, "yeah, let's roll the dice" and another to convey the trade-offs to a very typical management in something like numbers.

Thank you for noticing my avatar portrait. I did it over a Summer in the south of France. It will probably be worth a fortune once I am gone and regarded as a giant of the early 21st century world of art.

I wrote Moz about the "Staff" thing and it looks like they deleted the title... all titles really.

Best... Mike

[DonnaDuncan]

Give them two options in a grid format:

(1) do nothing;

(2) redirect mobile to desktop

To the right of that, use two columns to convey pros and cons.

I guess you could do nothing and measure the impact for a few months, comparing this year to last. If things don't look good, then execute option 2. Might be hard to isolate the impact of the mobile index versus anything else though, but it's probably the best you can do.

And then there's the 3rd option... go responsive, but as you've said, you don't have time or budget for that unfortunately.

[94501]

Hi Donna,

Thanks for all the help. I really appreciate it.

Best... Mike