Google is continuing its efforts to promote a more responsive internet with guidance on how to consolidate separate mobile URLs into a single URL.
Website owners who initially opted for mobile-friendly m-dot URLs, such as m.example.com, might now prefer to shift to a single responsive site.
When undertaking a significant site change, it’s crucial to be aware of the signals being transmitted to Google.
Google has provided recommendations for migrating m-dot URLs to a responsive site in an SEO-friendly manner.
The migration process is relatively straightforward once the responsive site is prepared.
After the responsive site is ready, you need to set up 301 redirects from the m-dot URL to the regular URL.
Your desktop URLs will remain unchanged; therefore, redirects should be set up from the mobile URL to the appropriate desktop URL.
Finally, eliminate any mobile-URL-specific configurations your site may have, such as conditional redirects or vary HTTP headers.
Google also advises setting up rel=canonical tags on the responsive URLs to point to themselves.
Beyond the reporting advantages from merging dual URLs into one, Google highlights other beneficial technologies:
“…it will also make it much easier to adopt practices and technologies such as hreflang for internationalization, AMP for speed, structured data for advanced search features, and more.”
This guidance is provided ahead of Google’s anticipated switch to a mobile-first index. Are you prepared?
