How do you check mobile-friendliness when you have a separate mobile site?

[AdamThompson]

One of our clients has a separate mobile site, and we've setup the rel="alternate" on the main site homepage, but https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ still fails the site (it checks the main site, instead of the mobile site) when we put in the main site URL. Is there any way to check that we've got everything setup correctly? (We have a lot of experience with mobile responsive sites, but not so much with separate URLs.)

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

Do you have an example URL we can check? Did you only do this on the homepage and no other internal pages?

Also, did you set up your redirects properly? Check out this resource from Google.

I would read that through that and make sure your code lines up correctly.

Let me know - would love to help! Good luck!

[DirkC]

The normal way to check is like you did - if it fails it implies something is wrong with the way you set it up. Check the link in Patrick's answer - the doc of Google is quite detailed how to set it up properly.

rgds

Dirk

[AdamThompson]

Yeh, that's the doc we followed in setting up the code on the homepage. I'll PM you the URL.

[AdamThompson]

NM the URL is arcticair4me.com

[AdamThompson]

Thanks. The Google doc is what we were using as our guide to set up the code on the homepage. So you're saying that the main site homepage should pass the mobile friendly test tool if we have it set up right? URL is arcticair4me.com

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Adam

Are you sure your redirects are set up properly? I tested this on my phone and it seemed a little wonky. Are those put in place correctly?

[DirkC]

I just tested the url on web-sniffer.net with mobile user agent - it seems that the tool you use to detect if the user agent is a mobile one doesn't work. I get a normal 200 status (from the desktop site) - idem like Patrick

rgds,

Dirk

[AdamThompson]

The redirect was setup by a previous vendor, but I've not noticed any issues with them.

[PatrickDelehanty]

^ Adam, there you go! Great job, Dirk!

[AdamThompson]

You would get a 200 response...the redirect is JavaScript, not server side. Maybe we should change that? Do you have a WP plugin you recommend?

[DirkC]

Adam,

Did the same check with Firefox (with a Mobile user agent) & still get the desktop version. Don't think the problem is with the redirect but with the detection.

I guess if you search for User Agent sniffer Wordpress you should be able to find some tools. Afraid I can't help you with that (this is the point where I handle it over to the technical department myself...)

Dirk

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Adam

What are you looking for a WP plugin to do specifically?

[AdamThompson]

To handle the redirect to the mobile site. Sounds like the JavaScript this client had in place isn't working correctly.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi Adam

I have not personally used one, but this particular search looks like it uncovers some that are available. "Simple Mobile Redirect" has the best reviews. Also, this is a good general guide from Google on user agent detection / HTTP redirects.

[AdamThompson]

Got this issue fixed. The issue was that robots.txt was blocking the Javascript file that does the redirect, so Google couldn't see the redirect.

[evolvingSEO]

Great - glad it was sorted out!

-Dan