By Scott Gledhill, Web Technology & Strategy, News Digital Media

In this three part series we will explore whether technology affects how search engines interact, crawl and index our websites. Let’s begin this series with technologies’ new kid on the block, AJAX.

What is it?

AJAX, or Asynchronous Javascript and XML is a well-known buzzword in the web industry coined in a well known article a couple of years ago by Information Architect, Jesse James Garret of Adaptive Path.

What AJAX actually does for us is take the traditional, slower use of full page server requests for web pages and replace this with many smaller multiple requests going on in the background, whilst a user is interacting with the page.

AJAX = Faster, more responsive web pages for the user.

Why we want to use AJAX

• HTML foundation, which is good for SEO
• Improve the user experience
• Convey information in a more complex, engaging way

Things we should know about AJAX

• Dynamically created content, which search engines can’t index
• Many programmers do not know how to build SEO friendly interfaces

Ways to make AJAX search engine friendly.
First ask yourself, can you build the web page you desire without the use of AJAX? Some pages do not require AJAX to achieve the desired result of some clients; this must be addressed before building the website.

If you do need to use AJAX, then you should start to think about the following.

Progressive Enhancement
A methodology of building websites in layers that allows more users to access the essential information of the website, adding layers of presentation and behaviour if the browser or device is capable of adding such functionality.

• HTML: Content Layer, essential information that can be accessed by search engines.
• CSS: Presentation Layer, the look and feel of your document.
• AJAX: Behavior Layer, the interactivity and fun bit of your document.

The most important layer here is the content layer, which is essential and should always be accessible to all devices and to search engines. The technology you use should enhance the content, not be the content.

Finally, you should only use AJAX sparingly to enhance the website. Small enhancements means keeping content exposed to users and search engines, while introducing usability improvements only when necessary.

Conclusion
AJAX can increase usability, speed of your websites and encourage repeat visitors. This can all backfire if your content is hidden within AJAX, and your website is not indexed or found through organic search.

To ensure your AJAX applications are findable:

• know the disadvantages of AJAX
• educate your developers
• know and practice progressive enhancement
• use AJAX in small bits
• content is important, do not hide it from search engines

See you with the next installment.

Scott

Standardzilla.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.