Mobile Content

[Dan01]

OK, I have a site that has some old HTML legacy pages and some new pages using and old version of Drupal with unclean URLS.

Is there a FREE way to convert the site for Mobile?

Do we need to make a separate domain besides the .com?

Is there any duplicate content issues?

I saw a video about a service that charges five bucks a month, but would like a free solution.

Any ideas, especially one that doesn't require us to upgrade the Drupal? I looked throughout WebmasterWorld and didn't see a thread about this already.

[ergophobe]

Hi Dan01,

There's a lot in your question and there are threads that address parts of it. So let's start with those parts, but first a question: What is a mobile site for you? It could be anything from a fluid width design that works well at small resolutions, to a much, much lower bandwidth version of your site that has no images, very little CSS and so forth.

The Drupal part - you could create a theme that would work well at different resolutions. But even if you use display:none for some page elements, you're still sending them and using the bandwidth.

The static HTML part - that depends. If it's mostly CSS-based, you might be able to create a layout that works.


Duplicate content and SEO - there have been lots of discussions on this, some going way back

[webmasterworld.com...] (dupe content, 2006)

[webmasterworld.com...] (fluid or fixed for mobile, 2012)

[webmasterworld.com...] (subdomain or new domain for mobile, 2011)

[webmasterworld.com...] (dupe content, 2008)

[webmasterworld.com...] (SEO differences, 2012)

[Dan01]

Thanks ergophobe. I will be reviewing those threads.

[Dan01]

I read this is the third link down (from the Google Blog):

For now, we expect smartphones to handle desktop experience content so there is no real need for mobile-specific effort from webmasters.

So basically, the smart phones will be converting the pages via the browser. But what about the ads?

On Adsense they say they will no longer support ads for mobile and are recommending everyone use ads for content.

[Dan01]

So after reading up, it seems like we don't really need to do anything. Google says the mobile browsers will convert our content and the Adsense for content ads will work too. That could save me a ton of time. Right?

[ergophobe]

I don't know as you have to do nothing. It depends on how "mobile native" you want your site.

As it turns out, yesterday's Alert Box article was on exactly this topic.
[useit.com...]

[Dan01]

Interesting article ergophobe. Thanks.

This is what I have been thinking for Drupal. All you need is the "node". That is the content. My concern is building an app or mobile site that securely sends the password etc to my Drupal database to fetch the node and display it for the mobile user.

I have looked for a standalone product on sourceforge and Drupal. Maybe add some navigation and ads and be done.

[Harry]

I disagree about one point from Nielsen - the automatic redirection of mobile users is not a good thing at all in terms of usability. It basically removes the opportunity of choice from users. Many times users specifically want to use the full site for whatever reasons that we as webmasters and developers have to respect. Redirection removes this choice from users. It's better to clearly give a link where users can pic a mobile site, rather than force them into one.

[ergophobe]

Makes sense Harry. It's certainly annoying.

Dan - you can easily build a theme that sends just the node (and presumably some minimal navigation). Just start hacking away at page.tpl.php

[Dan01]

I'm going to play with it.