Mobile URL parameter (Redirection to desktop)

[echo1]

Hello,

We have a parallel mobile website and recently we implemented a link pointing to the desktop website. This redirect is happening via a javascript code and results in a url followed by this paramenter: ?m=off

Example:
http://www.m.website.com                                 redirects to:
http://www.website.com/?m=off

Questions:

• Will the "http://www.website.com/?m=off" be considered duplicate content with "http://www.website.com" since they both return the same content?
• Is there any possibility that Google will take into consideration the url ending in "/?m=off"? How should we treat this new url?
• The webmaster tools URL parameter configuration at the moment isn't experiencing problems but should we submit the parameter anyway in order not to be indexed or should we wait first and see the error response?
• In case we should submit this for removal... what's the best way to do it? Like this?
  • Parameter: ?m=off

• Does this parameter change page content seen by the user? - doesn't affect page content

Any help is much appreciated.
Thank you!

[TakeshiYoung]

Query parameters can become indexed by Google and can lead to duplicate content. Just make sure that you are using the canonical tag in your header pointing to the non-query parameter page, that way Google will know to index the proper URL.

[echo1]

The page ending in ?m=off is non existent. We are using Joomla and such page does not exist and cannot be configured via canonical tags. Any other suggestion?

Thank you!

[Aleyda]

Hi there!

It's ok (and needed) in these circumstances to use a parameter in the URL since you cannot simply add a direct link otherwise your mobile users who select to switch to the desktop version will end-up in a redirection loop. What you can do to avoid any type of content duplication issues in this type of settings is:

• Add a link rel="alternate" tag in each of the desktop URLs referring to their specific mobile URL versions and a link rel="canonical" tag in all of the mobile URLs referring to their specific desktop URLS versions, as specified here by Google. Take a look at an example here
• Configure the appropriate canonical tags in your Desktop URLs as specified here by Google, so they always refer to their original URL versions (without parameters). This means that in http://www.website.com/?m=off you should add this canonical tag:```
  pointing to its original URL version... and do this with every URL (referring to its own original URL version).

By doing this you won't have any content duplication issues. If you want to learn more about Mobile SEO take a look at the Webinar I did sometime ago in SEOmoz here and this post where I answer the most common Mobile SEO questions.

Thanks,

Aleyda

[echo1]

Thanks Aleyda, mobile website development is something new for and since we developed this in house, we are not sure if we have done the right thing, if we have duplicate content. Is there any way we can check for duplicate content? Could you take a look at our website and its mobile version and let us know what you think?

Thank you!

[Aleyda]

Hi again!

It's normal that you feature very similar or even, duplicate content through both your mobile and desktop Website versions, what it is fundamental though is that you use the rel alternate and canonical tags that I shared with you in my previous answer. I've just checked your site and you're not using them.

If you correctly add these tags in your mobile and desktop URLs as I described in my previous answer you shouldn't have any content duplication or cannibalization issues in Google's search results.

Thanks!

Aleyda