Well the Google bots currently cannot see sites produced in AJAX just the same way they can’t see flash and struggle with java and though most java is not in AJAX the google bots ability to see AJAX would enable many webmasters to add much more appealing content to their sites. The scripts are particularly complicated to read in an automated fashion in comparison with other more traditionally coded sites and added to which it is likely that they can be manipulated easier to contain harmful data to users and hide things from the search engine bots. This has been the concern with letting AJAX be added to the bots lists of things to crawl.
Google proposes AJAX crawling
On the 20th October Google proposed making AJAX sites crawlable the idea that the big wigs at Google have put forth aims to help make the process of getting your AJAX site visible to bots as painless as possible as well as of course their aims to make AJAX sites visible to bots in the 1st place. If you are one of the people worried about how to do this there is an explanation of the URL changes on Google’s official blog. However a proposal is not always a guaranteed change, as we all know much of what Google and other major companies suggest putting into place will never make it out of the planning phases. And with such a mixed response to this proposal we certainly can’t be sure whether this one will either.
Why bother with AJAX?
Well the reason that Google is investing so heavily in this is simple, AJAX has fantastic usability and is very popular with consumers so the second its competitors indexed the site Google could be put at a disadvantage and quite obviously did not want to loose their crushing hold on the market. But, why is it popular with consumers and webmasters? Well that’s easy it’s popular for the same reason java script is popular it provides an easy way for webmasters to produce a user friendly piece of eye candy that their user will enjoy. This in turn produces more return visitors and higher conversion rates in comparison with their basic HTML competitors. But, of course despite the changes HTML still seems to be the best option to SEO your site but, at least this minor step will be a much welcomed endorsement for AJAX using webmasters.
