SEO & AJAX

I want to make my site a bit more streamline but I still want people
who have javascript turned off to be able to access the content still.

So when ever someone comes to the site, a check is done, if they have
javascript the page is reformed to load content without refreshes, but
if they dont have it I use the Meta tag Refresh and load the regular
content.

How well do most Search Engines crawl with meta refreshes?

"Sutabi" <sutabi (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote:

I want to make my site a bit more streamline but I still want people
who have javascript turned off to be able to access the content still.

So when ever someone comes to the site, a check is done, if they have
javascript the page is reformed to load content without refreshes, but
if they dont have it I use the Meta tag Refresh and load the regular
content.

How well do most Search Engines crawl with meta refreshes?

Consensus here (and other places as well) seems to be that meta refresh is
a big no no.

--
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--> http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

Sutabi wrote:

I want to make my site a bit more streamline but I still want people
who have javascript turned off to be able to access the content still.

So when ever someone comes to the site, a check is done, if they have
javascript the page is reformed to load content without refreshes, but
if they dont have it I use the Meta tag Refresh and load the regular
content.

How well do most Search Engines crawl with meta refreshes?

Rather than meta refreshing to a different version, you'll be better
off if you use 'graceful degredation' so you have one version that
reacts differently if you have Javascript turned on or off.

You can see this in action at
http://www.coursesearcher.co.uk/pathways.php - if you have Javascript
turned on, it uses "return false" to stop the links sending you to
another page, instead using AJAX-style techniques to update the page.
If you have Javascript off, the links work to show you a normal version
of the site that updates across pages.

That way, the search engines can get through it normally, as can people
without Javascript, as they still have normal links to follow. If you
run a search for site:www.coursesearcher.co.uk in Google you can see
that it's indexed the various non-Javascript versions of the pages.

Note: This isn't a great example for SEO as the site has almost no
textual content, it's a niche search system for school courses, but it
shows how AJAX / Javascript can work as a 'behaviour layer' over a
standard site, rather than having two sites running side-by-side.

HTH

Paul
--
Check the spiderability of your pages: http://www.spidertest.com
Paul Silver - freelance web developer
http://www.paulsilver.co.uk

Meta Refresh isn't necessarily bad, just make the reload time more than
10 seconds.
Paul Zhao
http://www.paulzhao.com


Paul Silver wrote:

Sutabi wrote:
I want to make my site a bit more streamline but I still want people
who have javascript turned off to be able to access the content still.

So when ever someone comes to the site, a check is done, if they have
javascript the page is reformed to load content without refreshes, but
if they dont have it I use the Meta tag Refresh and load the regular
content.

How well do most Search Engines crawl with meta refreshes?

Rather than meta refreshing to a different version, you'll be better
off if you use 'graceful degredation' so you have one version that
reacts differently if you have Javascript turned on or off.

You can see this in action at
http://www.coursesearcher.co.uk/pathways.php - if you have Javascript
turned on, it uses "return false" to stop the links sending you to
another page, instead using AJAX-style techniques to update the page.
If you have Javascript off, the links work to show you a normal version
of the site that updates across pages.

That way, the search engines can get through it normally, as can people
without Javascript, as they still have normal links to follow. If you
run a search for site:www.coursesearcher.co.uk in Google you can see
that it's indexed the various non-Javascript versions of the pages.

Note: This isn't a great example for SEO as the site has almost no
textual content, it's a niche search system for school courses, but it
shows how AJAX / Javascript can work as a 'behaviour layer' over a
standard site, rather than having two sites running side-by-side.

HTH

Paul
--
Check the spiderability of your pages: http://www.spidertest.com
Paul Silver - freelance web developer
http://www.paulsilver.co.uk

Paul Zhao schreef:

Meta Refresh isn't necessarily bad, just make the reload time more than
10 seconds.
Paul Zhao

And during those 10 seconds, a visitor is going to read / look at what?

A website he doesn't want to be at? a few seconds are enough for a
visitor to decide he landed on the wrong place.

Why redirecting visitors by meta refresh?

If your's should not be at the page you want them redirected from, make
sure they land on the page directly.

Fooling your visitors is something one should not do.


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