Web browsers have continued become more sophisticated and they provide additional supports for new web technologies. Many new methods are added and we can enjoy multiple ways of using the Internet. Ajax is one of the most useful ways to improve our online experience and it facilitates excellent integration between the data and users. It is a highly expected part of e-commerce and web-based application in the Web 2.0 era and beyond. Ajax continues to be a hot technology and it is widely used in the e-commerce industry. Web developers prefer to create ecommerce websites using Ajax also to improve SEO performance.
Web developers should look for ways to develop proper implementations of Ajax that allow them to take full advantage of its technology. They could do this by preserving search engine usability. We know that search engines don’t really parse JavaScript and they mostly ignore Ajax calls. Search engine bots think with enough simplicity, it would simply read text on the page and follow any workable link. This allows search engines to read the overall structure of the website. It means that we should use links to allow search engine index our website properly. Yes, that may sound quite obvious, but if we want to use an unparseable technology like Ajax, it is important to focus ourselves on proper internal linking.
When using Ajax, it is important for us to use simple text only as links, no images, divs and others. We shouldn’t have any kind of show-stopping limitations in our website, because we should make sure that we are able to get all of our webpages indexed. Simple HTML tags should also be used to maximize the chance for search engine to read our website. Modern webpages are filled not only with Ajax, but also CSS and various navigation bars. To ensure that we can improve the functionality of our website, it is important to accept that search engines don’t appropriately parse JavaScript. Ajax caller functions should also be designed to accept common page parameters and they should be able to call appropriate URLs.
In some cases, websites owners want to upgrade their old websites with Ajax technology and this requires a proper process that allows us to follow links. In general, we should be able to achieve more advanced interfaces and it is important to make sure that people are able to bookmark specific webpages that they want. Adding Ajax functionality shouldn’t mean that our website is less friendly to search engine. Blocks of Ajax codes shouldn’t get in the way and search engine bots should be able to flow smoothly through the navigation pathways. In general, regardless of the technology uses, websites should prioritize on its text-based content and links. Even images should be considered as a lower priority, while unparseable codes, such as JavaScript and CSS will be placed in even lower priority. However, with proper methodology, we should be able to create an image- and code-rich website without reducing search engine friendliness.