Can Google Spiders read websites built with AJAX?

Since you are reading this article I will assume that you already know what AJAX is and how it works. You are probably either planning to build a website using AJAX, or have already built a site and are curious as to why your pages are not being indexed in Google.

AJAX is one of the greatest web innovations built in recent memory. Theoretically you could design a website where your visitors never actually have to leave the start page. But unfortunately, for Google, or rather for web designers, therein lies one of the major problems with AJAX.

You see, if your website only consists of one actual page, then Google will only index that one page. It is not sensitive to navigational content within that one page, and as such cannot lead your visitors directly too it. So that is AJAX problem #1 summed up:

What ever you do, do not confine your website to one page!

Another reason why this is good advice is because your visitors won't be able to use the navigation buttons within their browser to navigate your website. The back button will become obsolete, the refresh button will probably lead them back to the start page, etc. One page designs are simply a bad idea!

So, will spreading your website across multiple files make your website Google friendly? In one word: no. I'm afraid it still will not recognise the AJAX components of your website. However, this does not mean that your website is doomed, and that all the AJAX programming was/will be for nothing. After all, AJAX is quality, and who wants to live without it?

Luckily enough there are a few workarounds we can use to allow AJAX pages to become indexed by Google. It is vital here though to distinguish the good workarounds from the absolutely catastrophic ones.

The ultimate bad idea: cloaking

Cloaking is a method that was used by a lot of dodgy websites to fool search engine spiders into indexing them. In essence it involves creating two websites. Using this method will get you banned from Google. So definitely not the solution you are looking for.

So what is the right solution?

Degradable AJAX

By designing your website with Degradable AJAX it will be viewable for both viewers who have JavaScript enabled or disabled. This of course immediately makes it search engine friendly, as the spiders will see the JavaScript disabled version. Note that it will require a bit more work on your behalf, as you will have to test the none-AJAX version to make sure it works smoothly. However, the results will definitely be worth it. Here is a basic tutorial to Degradable AJAX:

http://particletree.com/features/the-hows-and-whys-of-degradable-ajax/

Noscript Tags

Another, although less elegant, workaround is the use of noscript tags:


I strongly recommend you have a crack at Degradable AJAX first though. Either way you should have the tools now to build a search engine friendly AJAX website;-)!

If Google can scan Word Documents and PDFs, why do they struggle with AJAX?

My guess is that Google could scan files included via AJAX if they wanted to. However, through the possibility of an unlimited number of dynamically created conditions within a single page, the indexing could lead to irrelevant search results for a lot of users. Let's say for instance we have a page containing car types, and the designer has enabled his visitors to look up extensive information on over 100 different cars. Now Google could probably dynamically re-create each scenario to scan all the information for each of those 100 cars, but once a visitor reaches the page through Google, he or she would still be confronted with the standard start page. To look up the information on a VW Golf they would need to search through the site themselves. They might also just give up since the information they were searching for isn't immediately present as per a normal page indexed by Google. Remember, with AJAX one page could have 1000s of dynamically created conditions. Indexing AJAX pages could drastically affect the accuracy of Google's results.