How do you implement dynamic SEO-friendly URLs using Ajax without using hashbangs?

[Sayers]

We're building a new website platform and are using Ajax as the method for allowing users to select from filters. We want to dynamically insert elements into the URL as the filters are selected so that search engines will index multiple combinations of filters. We're struggling to see how this is possible using symfony framework. We've used www.gizmodo.com as an example of how to achieve SEO and user-friendly URLs but this is only an example of achieving this for static content.

We would prefer to go down a route that didn't involve hashbangs if possible.

Does anyone have any experience using hashbangs and how it affected their site?

Any advice on the above would be gratefully received.

[ChapterEight]

Hey,

so I guess you're wanting to achieve this (http://extensions.ecommerce-team.com/apparel?___store=shopbypro&reset_filter=1) - aor something similar using ajax so the page updates without re-loading?

I guess you need to use token's in the url path rather than a dynamic url. Its a big job as you'll have to define some rules to say colour must come first, brand second, range last or something similar so you end up with domain.com/brown/levis/jackets/ - is that right?

Essentially its working as a site search with some defined rules, so you'd have to think about the following:

404's - if your pages are built on queries, a user could potentially create a link to a page domain.com/brown/jackets/f**k/, obviously this would need to return a 404 or this could be indexed.

Canonical - the previosu point brings about dudplicate content issues, if you don't define the rules then you could have /brown/jackets/levis/ vs. /brown/levis/jackets/ showing the same content, so there needs to be some canonical management.

So you can use ajax to call a particular URL, you would need to use the filters as links ( <a>tags) so the pages are crawled and pull that content (search results) back, the url wouldn't changes though unfortunately, but it would still be linked to from the</a> <a>tag.</a>

<a>Is there a specific reason why you don't want to use a hashbang?</a>