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Thursday, September 14, 2017
With more sites moving towards responsive web design, many webmasters have questions about
migrating from
separate mobile URLs,
also frequently known as "m-dot URLs", to using
responsive web design.
Here are some recommendations on how to move from separate urls to one responsive URL in a way
that gives your sites the best chance of performing well on Google's search results.
Moving to responsive sites in a Googlebot-friendly way
Once you have your responsive site ready, moving is something you can definitely do with just a
bit of forethought. Considering your URLs stay the same for desktop version, all you have to do is
to configure 301 redirects from the mobile URLs to the responsive web URLs.
Here are the detailed steps:
Get your responsive site ready
Configure 301 redirects on the old mobile URLs to point to the responsive versions (the new
pages). These redirects need to be done on a per-URL basis, individually from each mobile URLs
to the responsive URLs.
Remove any mobile-URL specific configuration your site might have, such as conditional redirects
or a vary HTTP header.
As a good practice,
setup rel=canonical
on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves (self-referential canonicals).
If you're currently using dynamic serving and want to move to responsive design, you don't need to
add or change any redirects.
Some benefits for moving to responsive web design
Moving to a responsive site should make maintenance and reporting much easier for you down the
road. Aside from no longer needing to manage separate URLs for all pages, 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.
As always, if you need more help you can ask a question in our
webmaster forum.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eMoving to responsive web design from separate mobile URLs involves redirecting mobile URLs to responsive URLs using 301 redirects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners need to remove any mobile-specific configurations like conditional redirects or vary HTTP header after setting up redirects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eResponsive web design simplifies website maintenance, reporting, and implementation of features like hreflang, AMP, and structured data.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eDynamic serving websites transitioning to responsive design do not require additional redirects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmasters migrating from separate mobile URLs to responsive web design should configure `301` redirects from old mobile URLs to the new responsive URLs on a per-URL basis. Remove mobile-URL-specific configurations like conditional redirects. Setting up self-referential canonicals on responsive URLs is recommended. Switching from dynamic serving to responsive design requires no redirects. This shift simplifies maintenance, reporting, and adopting practices such as hreflang, AMP, and structured data.\n"],null,["Thursday, September 14, 2017\n\n\nWith more sites moving towards responsive web design, many webmasters have questions about\nmigrating from\n[separate mobile URLs](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing),\nalso frequently known as \"m-dot URLs\", to using\n[responsive web design](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing).\nHere are some recommendations on how to move from separate urls to one responsive URL in a way\nthat gives your sites the best chance of performing well on Google's search results.\n\nMoving to responsive sites in a Googlebot-friendly way\n\n\nOnce you have your responsive site ready, moving is something you can definitely do with just a\nbit of forethought. Considering your URLs stay the same for desktop version, all you have to do is\nto configure `301` redirects from the mobile URLs to the responsive web URLs.\n\nHere are the detailed steps:\n\n1. Get your responsive site ready\n2. Configure `301` redirects on the old mobile URLs to point to the responsive versions (the new pages). These redirects need to be done on a per-URL basis, individually from each mobile URLs to the responsive URLs.\n3. Remove any mobile-URL specific configuration your site might have, such as conditional redirects or a vary HTTP header.\n4. As a good practice, [setup `rel=canonical`](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/consolidate-duplicate-urls) on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves (self-referential canonicals).\n\n\nIf you're currently using dynamic serving and want to move to responsive design, you don't need to\nadd or change any redirects.\n\nSome benefits for moving to responsive web design\n\n\nMoving to a responsive site should make maintenance and reporting much easier for you down the\nroad. Aside from no longer needing to manage separate URLs for all pages, it will also make it\nmuch easier to adopt practices and technologies such as hreflang for internationalization, AMP for\nspeed, structured data for advanced search features and more.\n\n\nAs always, if you need more help you can ask a question in our\n[webmaster forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community).\n\nPosted by [Cherry Prommawin](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherry-prom/), Webmaster Relations"]]
