Ajax SEO

AJAX loads content interactively and makes pages faster. For SEO, this can be problematic because crawlers often only index the initial content. Solutions include HTML snapshots to ensure all content is captured.

Through the interactive loading of content, AJAX makes websites faster. However, AJAX has disadvantages for SEO concerning the indexing during the crawl process of a URL by a search engine's web crawler (bot), such as Google. Countermeasures can be taken with HTML snapshots.

What is AJAX?

Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) is a technology that implements the downstream loading of web content. In the first step, the standard view of a website is loaded. The user sees what is offered on the page and can choose from various options. If he selects one of these options – for example, a further menu selection, an information box with further information – (only) this content is loaded subsequently. Other options remain unloaded or are also transmitted only upon request. This ensures a speedy and smooth user experience.

AJAX issues and SEO

Since the entire page does not need to be rebuilt, the webpage has short response times. And since not all web content needs to be transferred during the initial load, the setup time is also very short. However, this advantage also has its drawbacks from an SEO perspective. When a crawler indexes the webpage during crawling, it only takes the content from the first load. The crawler does not execute the offered AJAX requests. Therefore, the optional content does not appear in the search engine index after crawling. If, from the site owner's perspective, these are the most important SEO content, a problem arises.

Solutions for AJAX / SEO

To work around the problem, there are several approaches. The web search engine Google recommends providing an HTML snapshot. This ensures that the Google Crawler (Googlebot) recognizes the entire content of an AJAX page during the crawling process, including those that are initially invisible to the human visitor. In this case, website operators maintain two versions of the page. One for the human visitor and one for the search engine crawler. The process involves a certain amount of effort, but it combines the advantages of AJAX convenience with the requirements of search engine optimization.

When considering both SEO and AJAX simultaneously, it's also important to note the web content freshness of a website. HTML snapshots need to be updated from time to time. Only then can the best effect for search engine optimization be maintained—especially since Google increasingly values high-quality content on a page.