Your traffic is already mostly on phones. The surprise is not mobile itself but how quickly it is changing what we ship.
So do you spin up a dedicated mobile site or go one site for every screen. Here is the AEM view from the trenches.
Google just rolled out the mobile friendly boost a couple of weeks ago and everyone is checking Search Console like a heartbeat monitor. If you are running Adobe Experience Manager, the question is not only SEO. It is also authoring, rollout, caching and what your teams can actually support.
Short answer. Both dedicated mobile and responsive can win. Long answer. Pick the one that fits your content model and your ops, then make the signals to Google crystal clear.
What Google just said about mobile
Search is rewarding sites that are easy to use on a phone. That means text that is readable without pinch, tap targets that are not tiny, and pages that load fast on a train ride connection. The label is Mobile friendly and you can test a page in the mobile friendly test tool. If your site fails on key templates, you will feel it in rankings for mobile searches.
Speed matters. Think under one and a half seconds to first meaningful paint on mid range Android over 3G. With AEM you get a few tools to help. Dispatcher caching plus a CDN to keep responses close. ClientLibs to bundle and minify. Dynamic Media with Scene7 to serve the right image rendition. These are not nice to have. They are required if you want search and users to stick around.
Three site patterns inside AEM
AEM can drive three common patterns. Your choice affects SEO wiring, authoring and performance.
- One responsive site. A single codebase with a responsive grid and breakpoints. Authors work on one page, components adapt with CSS and a bit of server side logic when needed. Use AEM device emulators to preview sizes and breakpoints. Good fit when content is the same for everyone and your design can flow. SEO is simple because every device hits the same URL.
- Adaptive or RESS. Still one URL, but the server picks component variants based on device groups. Think lighter hero on phones, heavy carousel on desktop. In AEM you can map device groups and swap components at render time. You keep a single URL so SEO stays stable, and you get more control over bytes shipped to small screens.
- Dedicated mobile site the m dot route. Separate URLs like m dot example dot com for phones and www for desktop. AEM can run both as separate branches linked with Multisite Manager and Live Copies, with mobile templates and smaller component sets. This gives you total freedom to simplify mobile flows. The tradeoff is more moving parts and more SEO plumbing.
The SEO and AEM tradeoffs
If you go responsive or adaptive with one URL, your main tasks are page speed, viewport meta, and keeping content parity so you are not hiding critical stuff from phone users. AEM helps with responsive images through media queries and renditions, and you can split ClientLibs so phones do not download desktop only scripts.
If you go with a dedicated mobile site, wire the signals cleanly so search engines see the relationship. On the desktop page add a link rel=”alternate” media tag that points to the phone URL. On the mobile page add a link rel=”canonical” back to the desktop URL. If you do dynamic redirects, set the Vary User Agent header. Avoid sending tablet users to the mobile site unless your design makes that choice explicit. Keep content equivalent so you are not telling bots one story and users another.
Authoring is a big cost center. With a single responsive site, authors touch one page. With mobile and desktop sites, authors manage two. AEM Live Copy can sync content and let you roll out changes while keeping some mobile only tweaks. Set clear rollout rules and train authors to avoid breaking inheritance by accident.
Performance is easier to control with RESS and mobile dedicated sites because you can send smaller components and fewer requests to phones. With pure responsive you must be extra careful that hidden desktop widgets are not still loading on mobile. Measure with WebPageTest on real device profiles and check that AEM Dispatcher and your CDN are caching both mobile and desktop variations properly.
A quick decision playbook
- Pick one responsive site if your content is the same on every device, your design can stack and flow, and your team wants one authoring workflow. Put your energy into speed and touch friendly components.
- Pick adaptive RESS if you need tighter control over bytes on phones but want to keep one URL. Use device groups in AEM to swap heavy components for lighter ones and keep search signals simple.
- Pick a dedicated mobile site if mobile tasks are very different from desktop or you are locked into a desktop layout that cannot bend. Budget for authoring and QA on two sites. Get the canonical and alternate tags right, set Vary User Agent, and keep redirects fast.
- Across all options, invest in image strategy. Use Dynamic Media or well planned renditions. Huge images are the number one killer of mobile speed.
- Lock down analytics and tagging. Make sure mobile and desktop data roll up correctly. If you split sites, keep consistent campaign parameters and test cross domain tracking.
- Do not ship intrusive app banners or splash pages that block content. People bounce and your mobile friendly test will complain.
One more AEM tip. Keep your component library small and predictable. Every extra variant multiplies the authoring and testing load across breakpoints and device groups. The best mobile site is the one you can fix quickly on a Friday afternoon.
So should you run a dedicated mobile site. If you need different flows or your current desktop stack is too rigid, yes, and AEM gives you the tools to keep it sane. If your content is the same and your team can design for flexibility, one responsive or adaptive site is cleaner and safer for SEO. Either way, be loud with the right signals, be ruthless with speed, and let your authors win. Phones get the first look now. Build for that reality.