This document discusses strategies for optimizing AJAX content for search engines. It notes that while AJAX poses challenges for crawlers, it also presents opportunities if handled correctly. The document recommends using query strings for paginated content instead of just fragments to avoid duplication issues. It also suggests using an XML sitemap and creating parameterized and non-parameterized URLs to help with deeper crawling of long-tail queries. The overall message is that AJAX can be optimized for search through the right technical solutions.

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SEO & AJAX:
problems or
opportunities?

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salsa dancing + travels + crime novels + lot of fun
=
Giuseppe Pastore
(unconventional SEO manager)
Say hello!
@Zen2SEO

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Bo(a)t
AJAX Content

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Back in the days...

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Giuseppe Pastore
SEO specialist
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2007/11/spiders-view-of-web-20.html

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http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2009/10/proposal-for-making-ajax-crawlable.html

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http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2014/05/understanding-web-pages-better.html
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/05/rendering-pages-with-fetch-as-google.html
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2014/10/updating-our-technical-webmaster.html

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Giuseppe Pastore
SEO specialist

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Giuseppe Pastore
SEO specialist
http://searchengineland.com/tested-googlebot-crawls-javascript-heres-learned-220157

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Giuseppe Pastore
SEO specialist
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2015/10/deprecating-our-ajax-crawling-scheme.html

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http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2014/02/infinite-scroll-search-friendly.html

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• Facets
• Views
• Sortings
• Paginations

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1 Question
2 SEO’s
3+ Answers
Not rarely...

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Query-string vs AJAX

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?cat_id=4096_616859_61
6999&facet=coming_soon:October

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PROS
• Additional paths to
find products
• Possible long tail
traffic, optimizing
filtered pages
CONS
• Big Duplications Risk
• Possible Crawling
Budget Waste

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PROS
• Maybe additional paths to
find products
• Possible long tail traffic,
optimizing filtered pages
CONS
• Possible Duplications Risk
• (Possible) Crawling Budget
Waste

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?cat_id=4096_616859_61
6999&grid=false

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NOFOLLOW?

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?cat_id=4096_616859_
616999&sort=price_low

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?
page=2&cat_id=4096_616859_616999

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Facets
+
Views
+
Sortings
+
Paginations
http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?page=5&sort=price_low&cat_id=4096_616859_616999&grid
=false&facet=pickup_and_delivery:Ship%20to%20Home

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http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html

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Noindex + canonical?
Disallow in Robots.txt?
Internal link equity wasted
(and potentially external too)
Wrong!

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Facets
+
Views
+
Sortings
+
Paginations
+
Hreflang?
+
Mobile alternate?
http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999?page=5&sort=price_low&cat_id=4096_616859_616999&grid
=false&facet=pickup_and_delivery:Ship%20to%20Home

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Often you don’t have a perfect solution
Sometimes you have a decent one
Sometimes you have a least worst one

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999#page=5&sort=price_low&cat_id=4096_616859_616999&gri
d=false&facet=pickup_and_delivery:Ship%20to%20Home
AJAX

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Fragments are not requested by
clients or included in header referer.

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• Googlebot doesn’t “follow” links
(URLs are not crawled in the same
session)
• URLs are stored in the URL server
• A crawler will request the URL one
day
• The request will not contain the
fragment

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http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-
adventure/4096_616859_616999#page=5&sort=price_low&cat_id=4096_616859_616999&gri
d=false&facet=pickup_and_delivery:Ship%20to%20Home
http://www.walmart.com/browse/movies-tv/action-adventure/4096_616859_616999
NO DUPLICATIONS
NO CRAWLING BUDGET WASTE

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Without a crawlable pagination
the spider can’t reach
your item pages...
Be sure your server generates
a query-string pagination
accessible via prev/next

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Facets  AJAX
Views  AJAX
Sortings  AJAX
Paginations  AJAX + query-string via prev/next

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This is not the perfect solution
(it handles dupes but doesn’t help with long tail or indexation)
Anyway, I think it’s a very good start

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AJAX
AJAX = problems
AJAX = opportunities

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Add a XML Sitemap
for deeper indexation
Define long tail queries to
be targeted and create not-
parametric URLs (maybe
use a blog)

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You got (IMHO) the best solution
At least for a bit of time...
SEO evolves, that’s why we love it! ;)

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Thank you 
Giuseppe Pastore
@Zen2SEO