Trying to ensure AJAX rendered categories remain SEO friendly.
-
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!
-
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 -
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
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Sizes and numbers in friendly urls - syntax
Ok, I'm trying to establish some business rules of syntax for SEO friendly URLS. I'm doing this for an OpenCart online store which uses a SEO-url field to construct the "friendly URL's". The good news of that is I have total control over the urls' the bad news is I had to do some tricky Excel work to populate them. That all said, I have a problem with items that have sizes. This is a crafts store so many of the items are differentiated by size. Examples: Sleigh Bells, come in 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1 1/2" etc. So far Ive tried to stay away from inch mark " by spelling it out. Right now its inch but could be in. The numbers, fractions, sizes etc. create some ghastly friendly URL's. Is there any wisdom or syntax standards out there that would help me. I'm trying to avoid this: www.mysite.com//index.php?route=craft-accessories/bells/sleigh-bells/sleigh-bells-1-one-half-inch-with-loop I realize that the category (sleigh-bells) is repeated in the product name but there are several 1 1/2" items in the store. Any thoughts would be useful, even if it's links to good SEO sites that have mastered the myriad of issues with dimensions in the urls. thanks
Technical SEO | | jbcul0 -
SEO impact of AJAX category on Magento website?
I am designing a new category for my website. Instead of a grid or list view there is an additional (default) view that implements Owl Carousel. What this means for SEO is that there is going to be a lot of dynamically loaded content and I am not quite sure how to handle that. By default all the user (and Google) will see is product images. Once the product image is clicked more details are shown about the product. Are there any articles that any of you can refer me to on Googles recommendation for handling dynamic content? My initial thought was that with a decent site map and the other available views this wouldn't be a big deal, especially since my categories tend to bog down SEO with links and repetitive terms in the product name (i.e. Flavored This, Flavored That, Flavored Other Term) as well as I'm unsure if I need the "juice" passed through my category product links.. but I'll leave it to the community to confirm that.
Technical SEO | | bearpaw0 -
AJAX and High Number Of URLS Indexed
I recently took over as the SEO for a large ecommerce site. Every Month or so our webmaster tools account is hit with a warning for a high number of URLS. In each message they send there is a sample of problematic URLS. 98% of each sample is not an actual URL on our site but is an AJAX request url that users are making. This is a server side request so the URL does not change when users make narrowing selections for items like size, color etc. Here is an example of what one of those looks like Tire?0-1.IBehaviorListener.0-border-border_body-VehicleFilter-VehicleSelectPanel-VehicleAttrsForm-Makes We have over 3 million indexed URLs according to Google because of this. We are not submitting these urls in our site maps, Google Bot is making lots of AJAX selections according to our server data. I have used the URL Handling Parameter Tool to target some of those parameters that are currently set to let Google decide and set it to "no urls" with those parameters to be indexed. I still need more time to see how effective that will be but it does seem to have slowed the number of URLs being indexed. Other notes: 1. Overall traffic to the site has been steady and even increasing. 2. Google bot crawls an average of 241000 urls each day according to our crawl stats. We are a large Ecommerce site that sells parts, accessories and apparel in the power sports industry. 3. We are using the Wicket frame work for our website. Thanks for your time.
Technical SEO | | RMATVMC0 -
Should We Index These Category Pages?
Currently we have marked category pages like http://www.yournextshoes.com/celebrities/kim-kardashian/ as follow/noindex as they essentially do not include any original content. On the other hand, for someone searching for Kim Kardashian shoes, it's a highly relevant page as we provide links to all the Kim Kardashian shoe sightings that we have covered. Should we index the category pages or leave them unindexed?
Technical SEO | | Jantaro0 -
SEO On-Page Planning - Wire Framing
This is open to discussion. I'm interested in getting help/opinions from others on how they plan their next SEO Project. What methods do you use for laying out On-Page Keyword targeting? Do you use any specific wire framing tools for laying out a large website? With larger websites, this stage is very important so I'd find it very useful to get help in this area. If you know of any useful threads covering this area, share them here.
Technical SEO | | Nick-SEOSpark0 -
Good Seo Titles
Hi. Mybsite is www.theprinterdepo.com and I am trying to find a good template for my product/page titles. Many users search our products by the product model: something like Q2121X. Some other users search by: hp 1320 printer or just 1320 printer. They will almost never search for hp 1320 new, or hp 1320 refurbished. My website is developed in magento, and we have a SEO plugin in which I can put a template for the URL and also a template for the product title. I was thinking for title and URL. title + condition + productmodel However many users search for: "refurbished printers" and maybe its better that our products say something like this: HP 1320 Refurbished Printer, instead of: HP 1320 Printer - Refurbished - Q2121X Please let me know your suggestions.
Technical SEO | | levalencia10 -
Blog Categories or Static Pages
Background: We're creating a site that for a service provider on a wordpress platform, and it will include a blog with a page for each service category. Let's say the client is a wedding photographer we'd create a page for studio portraits, events, wedding, newborns, family etc. Question: Should each category page be a stand-alone page or a blog category? As a blog category it will be updated with new content continually and automatically. However, it could cause duplicate content issues as well as keyword dilution. Research: I've done research and obviously there are conflicting opinions - skip categories altogether, categories bring traffic, problems & solutions. I'm hoping for your opinion on the matter, or direction to content on the issue that will be helpful. Blog categories yay or nay?
Technical SEO | | 5225Marketing0 -
Advertising and negative impact on SEO
On one of my sites, I've been trying to get the word out by contacting blogs and asking them to share my site with their readers. This has resulted in some free publicity for my site, as well as quite a few paid reviews/sponsored posts. Note, however, that I've never paid for links, just reviews of my site... When I started this about 2 months ago, my site was a PR3 and getting fairly lowsy organic search traffic (i.e. 30-40 visits a day from Google). Then a few days ago, my PR dropped to 1. I didn't worry too much though, because my organic traffic was still around 30-40 visits a day. Now today, I checked and I only had 1 visitor the entire day from Google. Obviously I've been penalized. My most important question is, what can I do? Do I have an recourse, or do I need to just shut the domain down and move elsewhere? Second, wtf is Google penalizing this? I understand the argument against paid links, but should I not be allowed to advertise my site? Apparently I can buy links all day long through Google and they'll happily take my money, but the minute I pay some poor blogger to write an article about my site to their audience, I get penalized? Please help, I can't believe I just destroyed one of my sites like this!
Technical SEO | | dustin9990
