Practical eCommerce

gcooper · **Date:** Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:59 pm **Subject:** Web 2.0 (AJAX) Impact on SEO

I have read a couple of recent articles (including Gogle's documentation on their Web Tool Kit) and am confused regards the impact Web 2.0 technologies, especially AJAX may have on SEO.

I understand the intent of WEB 2.0 is to provide a 'richer user exerience' and this makes sense in terms of conversion once we have traffic to our site, but a comment that specifically puzzled me was ;

'you may only have to develop a single web page as a container and the data is all that gets updated from the server based on the client request'.

This to me sounds supsiciously similar to the "frames" technology we used in previous incarnations of web development and is, as I understand it, frowned upon in SEO circles.

It is very possible I am just missing something important in this whole evolution but I would be interested in feedback from others.

Regards

GC

garethbrown · **Date:** Sat Nov 11, 2006 5:14 pm **Subject:**

Ajax isn't anything like frames, nor does it have the same set of problems.

With AJAX the problem is worst. The data is injected into the page using javascript so the SE bots can't even see it, unless it has been designed right.

The biggest problem developers have right now with AJAX is that making downgrade. If you achieve a downgradeable page, then every peice of unique content will have it's own unique URL.

We have been playing with AJAX but only in the place that it will make a impact on sales and user experience. I suppose the advice I would give is use it only when required, and if you do make sure the user is given feedback all the way through the process, for example loading panels, etc...

Gareth

bgetting · **Date:** Fri Feb 16, 2007 2:45 pm **Subject:** Good Points

Gareth is correct in that when content is served up using Ajax, the request to the server, the response from the server, and the visual changes required to display the content are all handled via JavaScript. Since search engine spiders do not support JavaScript, they are not able to perform these processes and therefor will miss the content.

That is, if the only way to get to the content is via Ajax. As Gareth mentioned, you want a downgradable solution that allows visitors without JavaScript enabled to properly navigate your content. To that end, I wanted to put a suggestion that anyone working with Ajax needs to be sensitive to the fact that some of your visitors will actually have JavaScript disabled in their browsers. For whatever reason, they do exist, even if there are very few of them.

Due to this, you want to start any website or application with the idea that nobody has JavaScript enabled. Once you have it perfected from that angle, Ajax functionality can be layered on top of that, so that users with JavaScript will experience the wonderous interface benefits of Ajax, but those without JavaScript available (including search engine spiders) will also be able to successfully navigate your site.

You end up with a degradable solution that is search engine friendly, or at least as much as you make it.

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