Hi all,
In your opinion is better:
- Responsive theme: only a theme, so you have to work mainly on only one theme but it's more hard because theme has to be perfect for ALL screen resolutions, from little mobile to big desktop monitors;
- Separated themes, 1 theme for mobile and 1 theme for desktop: you have to work on 2 graphics probable (need to do similar graphic), but you have also more control on themes.
For the SEO, which is the best approach?
I feel responsive theme is a better option as in one theme you get the benefits of both.
But you can even use user agent detection to show a mobile theme if you have a static website.
Ultimately goal should be your website should load faster and provide a good experience for end users.
Just my view
Regards
WallBB
I don't get how you say that having 2 themes have any effect on SEO. Only way it could mess up the SEO is that some code is not SEO optimised. Yes, there is a lesser chance of messing up with the code if there is only one theme. Other than that, it is mostly your convenience than SEO.
For both UX and UI, I'd say separate themes are better. And with a little mix of PHP there should be a feature that auto detects the device browsing the forum and it picks a specific theme depending on the device. I'd say making a separate mobile theme is better for "shortening" things; because on devices like iPhones or Samsung phones, there isn't much interactivity (no :hover, :active, or other pseudo elements to be used) which will make loading the theme faster for mobile devices. Plus, it'd just look better as that mobile themes are more supposed to be special for the ease of use, like quick navigation sidebar, etc.
You could add up some code so that only the chosen theme's CSS are the sheets that load which will cause the page to load faster.
TL;DR, you should make 2 separate themes. I'd also suggest making the desktop theme responsive too.
Thank you all for replies.
Actually two "separate" themes would be perfect for me, easier and faster, but then Google would see the theme for desktop or for mobile?
So I should to have anyway a responsive theme for desktop..
"Starting April 21, 2015, Google Search will be expanding its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in Google Search results. Users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results optimized for their devices."
Google bots will read your whole website ( normally ) unless you specify it in robot.txt
Separated. More control.
Also use GoMobile plugin to detect theme for mobile users
(2017-01-12, 12:44 PM)meetdilip Wrote: [ -> ]I don't get how you say that having 2 themes have any effect on SEO. Only way it could mess up the SEO is that some code is not SEO optimised. Yes, there is a lesser chance of messing up with the code if there is only one theme. Other than that, it is mostly your convenience than SEO.
I totally agree! i would have thought the same too, not unless some code is not optimised thats the only way it could mess up the SEO.