Hi, what is the best way for websites to be built for mobiles, i have made a few responsive websites, I have checked mobile site in the mobile validator, i have also checked responsive website templates you can buy and the validator says 0% when checking large corprate sites the score is just over 30%

 

so it it best to have a subdomain like m.domain.com or do i go with responsive websites ?

 

also does it need to be a subdomain could it be www.domain.com/mobile ?

 

how would having the m.domain.com effect seo ?

 

thank you

It depends on what the outcome needs to be.

 

If you're still going to present the same information to users, regardless of device, then go with responsive. You only have to work on the SEO on one website as opposed to two versions.

 

If you have a huge, complex website and you want to present a simplified version, as well as content, to the user, then user a completely different mobile website. Twice the work load, twice the hassle.

 

Personally, go with responsive

Hi Jason, thanks but if you check a website in the mobile validator that is responsive most of them score 0% for mobile compatibility, if i went for m.mydomain.com what would that do to the SEO of the main site would it be worth putting in disallow in the robots text ?

 

From what i have researched a mobile site needs to be built differently, the validator picks up errors on css floats also many sites use pixels for css widths where as mobile sites with pixels for widths and font size will fail these all need to be em

 

Thank you

Validation has no bearing whatsoever on ranking so get away from the idea that your website has to be mobile valid. You're using media queries right?

 

They probably score 0% for mobile compatibility, because there isn't anything special in the code that makes it mobile friendly. A responsive website just resizes really nice.

You're confusing the two - a dedicated mobile site and a resposnive site are different. A dedicated site may work and look completely differently to the desktop version - take a look at the Ikea website on your computer and then on your phone. A responsive site is the same website that "responds" or adjusts to the device size - you might use something like Bootstrap or any other good css base to achieve this.

 

Not sure why you're running a site through a validator to check for compatibility - that comes through to thorough testing in the development/design phase. Don;t worry about some validation score, worry of it actually works well in the devices you are targetting.

 

ok, i have done a bit of research and in our robots.txt we always disallow css and js folders but from what i have researched this should not be done a a responsive site

 

thanks

m domain com will be the best for mobile website.