Multiple Versions of Mobile Site

[seekjobs]

Hey Guys,

We have recently finished the latest version of our mobile site which means currently we have 2 mobile sites. Depending on what device and Os will depend on which site you will be presented with.
e.g.
iPhone 3 or 4 users on iOS4 will get version 1 of our mobile site
iPhone 5 users on iOS5 will get the new version (version 2) of our mobile site.

Our old mobile site is currently indexed in Google and performing pretty well.
Since the launch of the second mobile site we have not see any major changes to our visibility in Google and so was curious

My main concern here is duplicate content so I am curious can Google detect that we have 2 mobile site that we serve depending on device?  And if Google can detect this, why has our sites not been penalized!

Thanks,

LW

I know the first thing that comes to your mind is Duplicate content

[ReferralCandy]

If you have only just launched the new version of your mobile site, it may take some time before Google indexes it and detects that there are duplicate content with your previous version. Google bot doesn't crawl all new sites instantly.

Just wondering, have you done anything to prevent duplicate content penalty, such as using rel="canonical" tag? Also, why not update your previous version instead of creating a different mobile site entirely?

[seekjobs]

Thanks for your response, You raise a very valid point about the time taken for Google to index it. The new site has been live for a couple of weeks now, so I was hoping to see the new site to be starting to get indexed by Google by now!

In regards to rel="canonical",  Yes we have implemented on the mobile site referencing the desktop site.

Reason behind developing a new version rather than just updating the previous version was because we had new functionality to include and a fair few changes to design based on learning from the old site. That being said code from the first site was still being used so it wasn't a completely new build.

[MikeTek]

Hi LW,

I'm wondering about some particulars of your setup for this.

How are URLs handled between the three sites (1 desktop, 2 mobile)?

Are you serving up unique source code on the same URL per device, or do you have device-specific URLs for all content?

What are you using to detect the useragent and redirect the user? Is this happening server-side, or with JavaScript?

The particulars of your setup will determine your best approach. When in doubt I would follow the instructions on this page.

I would not expect two mobile versions of your site to cause a duplicate content issue - more likely that Googlebot Mobile will only see one version of the pages and index those (but as above, the technical particulars will determine this).

Best,
Mike

[seekjobs]

Hey Mike,

Thanks for your feedback, it is really helpful.

We are serving up unique source code on the same URL per device, with the user agent being detected on the server-side.

Am I right in assuming that he Googlebot Mobile will only see one version of the pages and index accordingly?

Cheers,

LW

[MikeTek]

Hi LW,

Sorry for the extreme delay here - the Q&A notification system went wonky for a bit and I never got the response message for this thread.

I'm sure you're passed this issue by now, but yes - Googlebot Mobile should just index the mobile version of the page.

Best,
Mike