Prepared for Search Engine Strategies - Chicago Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 1 Search Engine Strategies Chicago ‘06 AJAX and Search: Marrying the Odd Couple Presented by Jim McFadyen

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 2 Let There Be AJAX Buzzword bingo time! AJAX and Web 2.0 on everyone’s lists It’s hip and cool, but what does it mean to you? 1. Useful functionality for your website 2. Need to work to fulfill your SEO needs 3. Avoid the pitfalls!

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 3 What do I know?

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 4 AJAX does not clean floors! Asynchronous JavaScript And XML Allows communication between the browser and the server without refreshing the page Improves user experience through page permanence

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 5 Origin of the Species Based on the JavaScript XMLHttpRequest object Gains full power from XML and DOM Uses (X)HTML and CSS for presentation

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 6 AJAX is not... A programming language It's a convenient way to use existing technology Something to install or download It’s already there! Supported by A-grade browsers (Yahoo! defined) Provided that JavaScript is enabled chart.html chart.html

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 7 And most importantly... AJAX is not supported by search engines

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 8 The Good, The Limited, and The Unsupported The Good: A-grade browsers JavaScript enabled Only group thought of when developing websites The Limited: Older browsers and screen readers Those unable (or unwilling) to upgrade Visually impaired users The Unsupported: Search engine spiders...and users with JavaScript disabled, but that’s their decision

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 9 Oil and water... Search Engines and AJAX Don’t Mix Search engines do not run JavaScript Search engines can’t see AJAX-delivered content Content will not be indexed by search engine spiders AJAX-created navigation goes nowhere Spiders can’t see the links, so won’t follow anything

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 10 Start from the ground up Every page needs to be an HTML page Don’t worry about AJAX for the moment Every page must have its content on the page All links must already be in the HTML Test by turning off JavaScript in your browser If you can’t see content or navigate, you have work to do!

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 11 Web Developers to the Rescue! Geek Speak Warning! Web developers can use (non-AJAX) JavaScript to update the anchors on the page, and change the functionality to AJAX calls Ensures that the AJAX will work, we know it will work because the AJAX calls were set up by the JavaScript, which search engines are not capable of

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 12 AJAX as an Enhancement Ensure baseline application Supports non-AJAX and limited supported AJAX users, includes spiders Ensure enhancement is useful Can help site be more interesting/engaging Make the site run faster (less reload/refresh) Offer assistance or help to the user (Google Suggest)

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 13 URL Updates#why-how Geek Speak Warning! Site is set up for success 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 Add unique page IDs to each page Use JavaScript to update the URL using # Use JavaScript to fake an entry in the browser history

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 14 Duplicate content? Using #, you can get URLs like this: Our research suggests duplicate content should not be an issue as spiders do not index pages past the # Be careful when using it - not to cloak!

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 15 Bad AJAX! Bad! Gucci ( Looks really nice... but breaks every rule Most content is served exclusively through AJAX Very little content is on the HTML pages Most links are created through AJAX No JavaScript, no site!

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 16 Good AJAX! Sit! Roll over! Gap ( Follows the rules AJAX is an enhancement, not a requirement All pages exist as HTML All content is on the HTML pages All navigation links without AJAX Site works without JavaScript

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 17 As I was saying... Understand Search Engines Think like a search engine to support them HTML first, AJAX second AJAX implemented as an enhancement Only if it benefits the user – trivial functionality doesn’t help Make sure your site works without JavaScript That’s how search engines see it Don’t make Gucci.com’s mistakes

Copyright 2006 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved Page 18 Try the veal! Jim McFadyen Senior Web Developer Critical Mass Web