02 Jan The Mobile Redirect Problem

There are two sites for a hardwood floor company: a full site and a mobile site.

1. First, you need a script that redirects mobile users to the mobile site.

We used Chris Coyier’s clever solution: tell any device with a screen less than 699 pixels wide to go to the mobile site!

2. Then, we need to figure out how to give mobile users access to the full site – if they choose to click on the “Go to full site” link on the mobile site.

One solution suggested by Geoffrey Freedom is to make a different (clone) home page  without the redirect script — and use it to link mobile users to the Full site.

That solution presents a few problems: 1. why would you want to make a whole new full site for mobile users? 2. Google penalizes for duplicate content 3. Making only a home page clone doesn’t solve the problem of mobile users who go to different pages on the site.

Nevertheless, the “clone” solution is very nice if only the home page of the site has the mobile redirect.

The solution we chose is that of Sam Dunn at buildinternet.com: http://buildinternet.com/2011/01/add-a-mobile-landing-page-to-your-site/.

It suggests that a mobile page has a very specific function: to give mobile users fast bare-bones information on a telephone – a phone number, an address, directions, hours of operation, or other facts that somebody on the road needs to make a decision. However, if the mobile user prefers to get more information and follow a link to the full site, he has a chance to see the full site.

Sam Dunn’s solution uses a script by Sebarmeli: redirection_mobile.min.js.

He configures the script so that a mobile user is redirected by the Full Site only once by a cookie that lasts for an hour. If the mobile user clicks on the link to the full site he is not redirected a second time.

Elegant and clever!