SEO for Mobile Phones

Guide mobile users accurately

Running desktop and mobile versions of

your site
One of the most common problems for webmasters who run
both mobile and desktop versions of a site is that the mobile
version of the site appears for users on a desktop computer, or
that the desktop version of the site appears when someone
accesses it on a mobile device. In dealing with this scenario, here
are two viable options:

Redirect mobile users to the correct

version Desktop version Mobile version

When a mobile user or crawler (like Googlebot-Mobile) accesses the

desktop version of a URL, you can redirect them to the corresponding
mobile version of the same page. Google notices the relationship
between the two versions of the URL and displays the standard
Redirect
version for searches from desktops and the mobile version for
mobile searches.
Homepage Homepage
If you redirect users, please make sure that the content on the
corresponding mobile/desktop URL matches as closely as possible
(1). For example, if you run a shopping site and there's an access from
a mobile phone to a desktop-version URL, make sure that the user
is redirected to the mobile version of the page for the same
Redirect
product, and not to the homepage of the mobile version of the
site. We occasionally find sites using this kind of redirect in an
Product page Product page
attempt to boost their search rankings, but this practice only results
in a negative user experience, and so should be avoided at all costs.

On the other hand, when there's an access to a mobile-version URL

from a desktop browser or by our web crawler, Googlebot, it's not
necessary to redirect them to the desktop-version. For instance,
Google doesn't automatically redirect desktop users from their mobile
site to their desktop site; instead they include a link on the mobile-
version page to the desktop version. These links are especially helpful
when a mobile site doesn't provide the full functionality of the desktop
version—users can easily navigate to the desktop-version if they (1) An example of redirecting a user to the
mobile version of the URL when it's accessed
prefer. from a mobile device. In this case, the content
Mobile user on both URLs needs to be as similar as possible.

Glossary
Redirect
Being automatically transported from one specified web page to another specified
web page when browsing a website.

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 SEO Basics
Switch content based on User-agent

Improving Site Structure

Some sites have the same URL for both desktop and mobile content,
but change their format according to User-agent. In other words, both
mobile users and desktop users access the same URL (i.e. no
Desktop user
redirects), but the content/format changes slightly according to the
Desktop contents
User-agent. In this case, the same URL will appear for both mobile Must be same
search and desktop search, and desktop users can see a
desktop version of the content while mobile users can see a
mobile version of the content (2).

However, note that if you fail to configure your site correctly, your site Googlebot Can be Can be
could be considered to be cloaking, which can lead to your site different different

Optimizing Content
disappearing from our search results. Cloaking refers to an attempt to
boost search result rankings by serving different content to
Googlebot than to regular users. This causes problems such as less
relevant results (pages appear in search results even though their Website
content is actually unrelated to what users see/want), so we take
Googlebot-Mobile
cloaking very seriously.
Mobile contents Must be same
So what does "the page that the user sees" mean if you provide both
versions with a URL? As I mentioned in the previous post, Google
uses "Googlebot" for web search and "Googlebot-Mobile" for
mobile search. To remain within our guidelines, you should

Dealing with Crawlers

serve the same content to Googlebot as a typical desktop user
would see, and the same content to Googlebot-Mobile as you Mobile user
would to the browser on a typical mobile device. It's fine if the
(2) Example of changing the format of a page based on the User-agent. In this case,
contents for Googlebot are different from those for Googlebot-Mobile.
the desktop user is supposed to see what Googlebot sees and the mobile user is
supposed to see what Googlebot-mobile sees.
One example of how you could be unintentionally detected as
cloaking is if your site returns a message like "Please access from
mobile phones" to desktop browsers, but then returns a full mobile
version to both crawlers (so Googlebot receives the mobile version).
In this case, the page which web search users see (e.g. "Please Be sure to guide the user
access from mobile phones") is different from the page which to the right site for their
SEO for Mobile Phones

Googlebot crawls (e.g. "Welcome to my site"). Again, we detect

device!
cloaking because we want to serve users the same relevant content
that Googlebot or Googlebot-Mobile crawled.
Promotions and Analysis

Links

Google mobile
http://www.google.com/m/
Cloaking
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66355

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 Promotions and Analysis

Promote your website in the right ways

About increasing backlinks with an Website

intention to increase the value of the site

News: “I have a new card!”
While most of the links to your site will be gained gradually, as people
discover your content through search or other ways and link to it,
Google understands that you'd like to let others know about the hard
work you've put into your content. Effectively promoting your new
content will lead to faster discovery by those who are interested
in the same subject (1). As with most points covered in this
document, taking these recommendations to an extreme could My blog Product page
actually harm the reputation of your site.

Master making announcements via blogs

and being recognized online

A blog post on your own site letting your visitor base know that you
added something new is a great way to get the word out about new
content or services. Other webmasters who follow your site or Newsletter, DM,
RSS feed could pick the story up as well. User’s blogs Social media service
Posters, etc.
Online Offline
Putting effort into the offline promotion of your company or site can (1) Promoting your site and having quality links could lead to increasing your site’s
also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site, make sure reputation.
its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead, posters, etc. You
could also send out recurring newsletters to clients through the mail
letting them know about new content on the company's website.

If you run a local business, adding its information to Google Places

will help you reach customers on Google Maps and web search.
The Webmaster Help Center has more tips on promoting your local
business.

(2) By having your business registered for Google Places, you can promote your
site through Google Maps and Web searches.

Glossary
RSS feed
Data including full or summarized text describing an update to a site/blog. RSS is an
abbreviation for RDF Site Summary; a service using a similar data format is Atom.

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 SEO Basics
Best Practices

Improving Site Structure

Know about social media sites
Sites built around user interaction and sharing have made it easier to match interested groups of
people up with relevant content.

Avoid:
attempting to promote each new, small piece of content you create; go for big, interesting items
involving your site in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the top of these services

Reach out to those in your site's related

Optimizing Content
community
Chances are, there are a number of sites that cover topic areas similar to yours. Opening up
communication with these sites is usually beneficial. Hot topics in your niche or community could
spark additional ideas for content or building a good community resource.

Avoid:
spamming link requests out to all sites related to your topic area
purchasing links from another site with the aim of getting PageRank instead of traffic

Dealing with Crawlers

Is your site doing OK?

SEO for Mobile Phones

Promotions and Analysis

Links

Google Places
http://www.google.com/local/add/
Promoting your local business
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=92319

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 Promotions and Analysis

Make use of free webmaster tools

Make Googlebot crawling smoother by using Webmaster Tools

Major search engines, including Google, provide free tools for won't help your site get preferential treatment; however, it can help
webmasters. Google's Webmaster Tools help webmasters better you identify issues that, if addressed, can help your site perform
control how Google interacts with their websites and get useful better in search results. With the service, webmasters can:
information from Google about their site. Using Webmaster Tools

see which parts of a site Googlebot had problems crawling understand the top searches used to reach a site
notify us of an XML Sitemap file get a glimpse at how Googlebot sees pages
analyze and generate robots.txt files remove unwanted sitelinks that Google may use in results
remove URLs already crawled by Googlebot receive notification of quality guideline violations and request a site
specify your preferred domain reconsideration
identify issues with title and description meta tags

Yahoo! (Yahoo! Site Explorer) and Microsoft (Bing Webmaster Tools)

also offer free tools for webmasters.

High-level analysis is possible via Google Analytics and Website Optimizer

If you've improved the crawling and indexing of your site using Google Analytics are a valuable source of insight for this. You can use these
Webmasters Tools or other services, you're probably curious about to:
the traffic coming to your site. Web analytics programs like Google

get insight into how users reach and behave on your site
discover the most popular content on your site
measure the impact of optimizations you make to your site
- e.g. did changing those title and description meta tags improve traffic from search engines?

For advanced users, the information an analytics package provides, Lastly, Google offers another tool called Google Website Optimizer
combined with data from your server log files, can provide even more that allows you to run experiments to find what on-page changes will
comprehensive information about how visitors are interacting with produce the best conversion rates with visitors. This, in combination
your documents (such as additional keywords that searchers might with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools (see our video on
use to find your site). using the "Google Trifecta"), is a powerful way to begin improving your
site.

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 SEO Basics
Google Webmaster Help Forum Google Analytics
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/webmasters/ http://www.google.com/analytics/

Improving Site Structure

Have questions or feedback on our guide? Let us know. Find the source of your visitors, what they're viewing, and benchmark
changes.
Google Webmaster Central Blog
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/ Google Website Optimizer
Frequent posts by Googlers on how to improve your website. http://www.google.com/websiteoptimizer/
Run experiments on your pages to see what will work and what won't.
Google Webmaster Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ Tips on Hiring an SEO
Filled with in-depth documentation on webmaster-related issues. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.
py?answer=35291
Google Webmaster Tools If you don't want to go at it alone, these tips should help you choose
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ an SEO company.

Optimizing Content
Optimize how Google interacts with your website.

Google Webmaster Guidelines

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Design, content, technical, and quality guidelines from Google.

Make the most of useful tools

Dealing with Crawlers

and information!

SEO for Mobile Phones

Promotions and Analysis

Links

Google Trifecta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yKjrdcC8wA

This booklet is also available in PDF format. You can download the PDF version at ...
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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 Check out Google's SEO
resources and tools.

Google Webmaster Central Search

http://www.google.com/webmasters/

©Copyright 2010 Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

All other company and product names may be trademarks of
the respective companies with which they are associated.

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