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There are two common ways to run mobile version of a website:

  1. Detecting the mobile browser by server-side scripting to display mobile theme.

  2. Having a separate subdomain such as m.domain.com or mobile.domain.com.

Which is better in action? In both cases, I think mobile search engines fairly index the mobile website. What are pros and cons for each method?

Googlebot
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  • Here's some trivia: StackOverflow.com itself takes route #1 – Andrew Barber Mar 21 '12 at 20:45
  • @AndrewBarber That's the point; major websites equally use both methods. I mean there many large companies using subdomain. – Googlebot Mar 21 '12 at 20:56
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    If it's a *different* site, it should be on a different subdomain. If it's the *same* site, it should be on the same domain. Whether the different styles are due to personal preference or end-user device should not matter. (this does not apply to localization) – Andrew Barber Mar 21 '12 at 21:47
  • @AndrewBarber different website? check http://m.yahoo.com, http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org, and many more; they offer mobile version on a dedicated subdomain. – Googlebot Mar 21 '12 at 22:31
  • m.yahoo.com is *very* different from www.yahoo.com. Thanks for making my point. Wikipedia is the exception that proves the rule. But just do what you want. You're gonna, anyway. – Andrew Barber Mar 21 '12 at 23:17
  • @AndrewBarber I do NOT disagree with you. I just want to discuss the matter for clarification. – Googlebot Mar 21 '12 at 23:33

4 Answers4

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Option 1: This is more user-friendly for a few reasons. The biggest is probably link sharing and bookmark syncing. If a user on a desktop browser gets shared a link to a m.domain.com, it won't look very good, and non-savvy users will get annoyed. There are also certain users that prefer all pages to be in desktop mode (even on their mobile browser,) so all they need to do is adjust their user agent string on their mobile browser.

Option 2: Some people find this easier, but I can't think of a good reason for it with modern web development. ASP.NET MVC4 makes it really easy to create separate views for the same URL and there's simple functionality to switch between mobile and desktop mode. I would stay away from the subdomain option unless you find a very good reason to use it.

Danation
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1

I think responsive design is a simplest solution without any need of sub-domain or extra effort to put on how it looks on many different kinds of devices!

Responsive design is do-and-forget-it kind of design. once it is done properly and tested well, not matter what kind of device you are using to browse, it always makes look and feel better way. No need of separate development for multiple views.

PC.
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  • What do you mean? can you elaborate? heavy design of web browsers is not appropriate for mobile connection and screen. If you simplify web view, then you are ignoring features and possibilities. – Googlebot Apr 30 '13 at 11:37
  • responsive design can be actually stated as web design done in right way. You can decide what to show and what not to show based on the media query. Better have a look at responsive design methods once. It will be a simple replacement for website design in future. – PC. May 01 '13 at 12:35
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I'm not a big fan of displaying mobile theme/css since it'd be completely different than the regular css.

Also I think search engines will like that your site has more content since the mobile site will be considered as "more content"

Since they're seperate it'll be easier to deal with one or the other.

Negative is it's more work. Even though it's less complicated.

These are my 2 cents.

C0D3
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    That extra content could be considered duplicative, and both sites could be punished for it. Side note: stack overflow uses option 1 – Andrew Barber Mar 21 '12 at 20:47
  • I see, thanks for the tip. Any idea how to avoid the content being considered duplicative? Because a lot of popular sites also use subdomains for their mobile sites/apps. – C0D3 Mar 21 '12 at 20:51
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    Honestly, don't have the content be a duplicate. That is: if done on a different url, the site should be a different site. Not the same content with a different set of menus and layout. – Andrew Barber Mar 21 '12 at 21:41
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I feel media query is the way to go for small websites. http://webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/responsive-design-with-css3-media-queries

MACMAN
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