Benefits of .mobi websites?

[exit3left]

Sorry if this is dealt with elsewhere but couln't see anything on all forums in the search.

Is there any evidence that .mobi websites perform bettr in rankings than regular .com .co.uk etc when searched for on a mobile device. If there is nothing concrete to point at what are peoples feelings on the subject?

I am looking at the benfits and disbenefits of picking up .mobi domains versus just making my current site(s) fuction well on these mobile devices.

[bespokebureau]

Hi There,

I totally agreed with the Dipal that there is no such vast difference in the rankings of .com or .mobi websites. I also have some .mobi websites of my clients and they are working well in the same way the .com and .co.uk websites are working.

regards

Mark

[Billg]

I agree that there isn't much difference in terms of the rankings of sites, but I think it is important to bear in mind the advantages of having your site optimized for mobile viewing, especially with all of the smart phones, tablets, etc, that are now in the world. SEO wise, maybe not a big deal, but for conversion purposes, having a website that works well on mobile devices is extremely important.

[Talks_44]

As far as SEO and SEs go, I don't think the .mobi makes much difference. It's more so how you utilize your keywords on mobile sites vs regular sites. Mobile search engines function a bit differently so you have to change you SEO tactics a bit when making mobile sites.

If the name of your site fits better with .mobi than .com, go for the .mobi.

[deepsand]

It's more so how you utilize your keywords on mobile sites vs regular sites. Mobile search engines function a bit differently so you have to change you SEO tactics a bit when making mobile sites.

Elaboration needed:

• What constitutes a "mobile SE"
• How different from other SEs
• How/why relationship of keywords/phrases vis-a-vis query string differs from other SEs
• How mobile users are aware of such difference and modify their query strings accordingly

[Yasir Liaqat]

In my opinion it does not effect that a site has .mobi domain and if i say in broader way the domain name is not important. the most important thing is the presentation, contents, relevancy, quality and the other important factors that Search Engines has structured to assign the rankings.

[SEOforGoogle]

Nobody types in .mobi. The .COM is, and always will be, the king of domain extensions. To invest on any other dot whatever is a waste of resources.

[kgun]

Nobody types in .mobi. The .COM is, and always will be, the king of domain extensions. To invest on any other dot whatever is a waste of resources.

Never say there will never be a good competitor because:

1. There are so many com sites with bad content.
2. More and more sites may generally block bots and spiders because there is so much spam.
3. On mobi sites the internet in a sense start from scratch again.

By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. According to Gartner's PC installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

Source: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1278413

Because of spam, click through may increase in importance.

[SEOforGoogle]

@kgun - I don't dispute any of the points you made in your comments - but I think there is too much confusion around mobile and .mobi.

For example, ".mobi" is also a file extension for Amazon Kindle. Some sites use m.domainname.com or mobile.domainname.com to render out the "mobile" version of the site.

I think until there is a universally agreed upon standard for mobile, it's an investment that could take years to see the benefits, if ever.

[deepsand]

Nobody types in .mobi. The .COM is, and always will be, the king of domain extensions. To invest on any other dot whatever is a waste of resources.

A very large body of users don't type the TLD; very many don't even use the Address bar, but only the Search bar. In fact, on some browsers, like Chrome, the two bars are integrated into a single one.

@kgun - I don't dispute any of the points you made in your comments - but I think there is too much confusion around mobile and .mobi.

For example, ".mobi" is also a file extension for Amazon Kindle. Some sites use m.domainname.com or mobile.domainname.com to render out the "mobile" version of the site.

The same mechanisms used for detection of mobile devices and re-direction to a sub-directory or sub-domain suffice for re-directing to a different TLD.

I think until there is a universally agreed upon standard for mobile, it's an investment that could take years to see the benefits, if ever.

With DN Registration and hosting being dirt cheap, such costs are negligible.

Furthermore, for administrative, managerial and marketing purposes, it can be well argues that having the mobile resources be segregated brings advantages.