Advanced SEO - Separate URLs for Mobile and desktop applications

We can configure Separate URLs for Mobile and desktop applications

Annotations for desktop and mobile URLs

To help Google algorithms understand separate mobile URLs, we recommend using the following annotations:

1. On the desktop page, add a rel="alternate" tag pointing to the corresponding mobile URL. This helps Googlebot discover the location of your site's mobile pages.
2. On the mobile page, add a rel="canonical" tag pointing to the corresponding desktop URL.

google support two methods to have this annotation: in the HTML of the pages themselves and in sitemaps. For example, suppose that the desktop URL is http://example.com/page-1 and the corresponding mobile URL is http://m.example.com/page-1. The annotations in this example would be as follows.

Annotations in the HTML

On the desktop page (http://www.example.com/page-1), add the following annotation:

<link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)"
 href="http://m.example.com/page-1">

On the mobile page (http://m.example.com/page-1), the required annotation should be:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/page-1">

This rel="canonical" tag on the mobile URL pointing to the desktop page is required.

Annotations in sitemaps

Google support including the rel="alternate" annotation for the desktop pages in sitemaps like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/page-1/</loc>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" media="only screen and (max-width: 640px)"
    href="http://m.example.com/page-1" />
  </url>
</urlset>

The required rel="canonical" tag on the mobile URL should still be added to the mobile page's HTML.

SEO Tips

1. Avoid Image:
   
   • Always avoid the images.
      
   • If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.
      
   • Use the words "image" or "picture" in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.
     
      
2. Content is king:
   
   • Be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.
      
   • Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.
     
      
3. Proper linking:
   
   • If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.
      
   • Make sure your site is easy to use, proper linking
      
   • Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html. Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.
     
      
4. Fresh content:
   
   • Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.
      
   • If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.
     
      
5. Use keywords and keyword phrases:
   
   • Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.
      
   • Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.
      
   • Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.
      
   • Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.
      
   • Use keyword rich captions with your images.
     
      
6. Check for canonicalization issues:
   
   • www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
     
      
7. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.
    
8. Implement google Structured Data- https://developers.google.com/structured-data/
    
9. Google Instant - http://googleblog.blogspot.in/2010/09/google-instant-behind-scenes.html
    
10. How the google algo works - http://www.google.co.in/insidesearch/howsearchworks/algorithms.html
     
11. Need to implement http://ogp.me/ open graph protocols.
     
12. Implement twitter meta tags - https://dev.twitter.com/cards/getting-started