Trying to ensure AJAX rendered categories remain SEO friendly.

[bearpaw]

I'm considering implementing the following: http://lnavigation.demo.aheadworks.com/index.php/electronics-computers/electronics.html?___SID=U&mode=grid.

My concern is that it doesn't seem to align with Making AJAX Application Crawlable. However, the pagination, Grid/List toggle, etc.. appear to have their full HREF links intact and when accessed at that URL the appropriate, matching data is displayed. So, it seems that if Google can see the full URL path then it should be crawlable, correct? I'm not very concerned about the filters being SEO friendly.

Hoping the Moz community will offer some helpful insight. Thank you!

[DirkC]

Hi,

To be very honest - I don't know much about Ajax & how it can be crawled. I read an article beginning of March that the Webmaster guidelines on Ajax that you are referencing could well be changing in the near future. Haven't seen an update on Google Webmaster blog - but it might me something to keep in mind.

Screaming Frog can index all the products on the page - so as long as you keep the main category pages accessible via "static" links I don't think you'll run into problems.

Maybe somebody else can add some personal experience.

rgds,

Dirk

[KristinaKledzik]

Hi Tyler,

I think about AJAX and Google this way: if you can see all of the content on your site that you want Google to see without AJAX, you're good. It looks like all of the content loads without JavaScript, it's just the filters that Google won't be able to use. So, if you have 12 items for sale like this example, I think you're in the clear.

The problem is going to come if you start to have more products than you can fit on this page. Site architecture is a big part of rankings; you don't want the crawler to miss out on new products because they're on page 15 and the crawler never gets there. I see that you have a Popular Tags box, which may help with that, but you'll have to be very aware of that as you grow.

This set up may also make you miss out on category pages, which can be extremely valuable. With this set up, I'm not sure that you'd be able to have a landing page for "Android Phones," for example. If Google could crawl your filters, it would be able to come up with that combination.Then again, you may have thought this all through, and are just asking about this specific page. Either way, I hope this helped!Kristina