Is Ajax SEO friendly??

[Adnan]

Hi,
We've just launched our company website http://www.fsb.ltd.uk It's a single page website! All the contents are being loaded using Ajax in json format data. I and my friend bappi has developed it.

But now I'm worried about SEO. We've used history manager for hash management, so anyone can share any link with his friends. The question is, "Are the search engines able to parse the contents for hash enabled Ajax web pages?"

As I'm new in ajax+seo concept, I would like to request you for helping me out.
Thanks in advance.

[responder5]

Simple answer: Ajax and SEO dont mix.
The reason is most SE dont read most of the JavaScript.

The best solution is always use alternatives
Example: When you use javascript/ajax for some effects make sure you do provide alternatives to the non-java browser enabled users.

AJAX is nor supported by search engines.

Search Engines and AJAX Do Not Mix, spiders do not run JavaScript. Search engiens cant see AJAX delivered content. AJAX created navigation wont be crawled.

Every page must be HTML, every page must have its content on the page, all links must already be in the HTML, and test this by turning off JavaScript in your browser.

Web developers can use (non-AJAX_ JavaScript to update the anchors on the page, and change the functionality to AJAX calls. This ensures that the AJAX will work, we know it will work because AJAX calls were set up by the JavaScript, which search engines are not capable of...

Ensure baseline application is built first and then you can take AJAX to take the user experience one step forward.

AJAX breaks the normal browser refresh
- This means content not necessarily corresponding to URL
- No addition to the browser history
- No history, no back button

Fix this by Add Unique page IDs to each Page:
- Use JavaScript to update the URL using #
- Use JavaScript to fake an entry into the browser history
- But is that a duplicate content issue? But typically # signs do not count as duplicate content, they ignore that.
- Make sure not to cloak, it is very easy to cloak in this case, dont do it

Bad AJAX:
- Gucci.com
- Looks nice
- Most content is served through AJAX
- AJAX navigation
- He then turned off JavaScript and the page was blank
- Bad

Good AJAX:
- Amazon Diamond Search (http://www.amazon.com/gp/gsl/search/find...e_diamonds
- He shows off the diamond search feature with sliders
- When he turns off JavaScript it shows a simpler version of the AJAX version

Yahoo wants to make some general points:
- There is a reason why Yahoo wants it to work for a general user that doesnt have JavaScript, they want to look at the site from a "baseline."
- Yahoo will understand this stuff, they will get there, so dont assume stuff right now
- Open up your CSS so Yahoo can peak into it
- He also brought up Sitemaps as a way to also submit content (Site Explorer)
- Search engines arent built to interact with the site, like users

Google said they will also be indexing JavaScript and AJAX and CSS, so don't use it to hack. Google will walk you through it with Webmaster Console. Google's ultimate goal is for you not to worry about engines, and it is Google's job to figure it out.

Yahoo added again, again. simple user...Build it for the simple user and not the search engine.

You can still use Ajax and Javascript with a proper DHTML layer below it.

[Sean]

Hey Adnan,

First of nice site clean design!

Regards your question; Ajax isn't search friendly at the moment but Google and Yahoo are working on it!

I'd say as you have it at the moment the on-site seo is not looking good!

With Javascript disabled the site doesn't display. This is how Google will pretty much see it. You need to design the site using degradable ajax. (check sources)

An easy solution would be to create a non ajax working version of your website and add the ajax where necessary! This is never a nice solution to a programmer

Also your meta tags are not looking good! They need to be different for each page, this is the same for your keywords.

Get these sorted and also target some keyphrases. Your title tag should contain the keyphrase you are going for. No one will be looking for future solutions for business (even though most companies should be). How about "Web Design Luton" ? For starters

All the best with your venture.
Sean

p.s Make sure you add a sitemap.xml & robots.txt too!

[Webmaster S]

Ajax certainly not seo friendly but user friendly. you need to make a choice what to prefer and balance it.