Google Dumping AJAX JavaScript Crawling Scheme

Hooray! At long last Google is dumping escaped fragment URLs.

JavaScript developers the world over can breathe a sigh of relief.

Unless they ignored Google’s warning two years ago that they were going to End of Life it.

And didn’t do anything about it.

In which case they’ll be shocked.

Devs would never do that, would they?

This is an extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates 8th December 2017.

#SEO #SEONews #JavaScript #Googlebot #AJAX

Key Issues Summary:

• If you like your URLs unescaped, then Google is about to turn off its rendered AJAX crawling.
• Instead, using its shiny JavaScript crawling technology, Google will simply crawl and render the hash-bang (#!) version of the URL.
• The switch off will happen in Q2 2018, so after that you’ll be able to turn off your escaped fragment URLs. Assuming no other search engine uses them.

How to deal with Google Dumping Ajax:

1. For devs, this should be one less headache to take into account when creating websites, unless you have issues with the different types of AJAX URLs.
2. Use Fetch and Render in Google Search Console to ensure that the #! version of the page renders exactly the same as the escaped fragment version.
3. Use Google’s developer docs to to debug issues with the code.
4. Before dropping these URLs, make sure they don’t get significant traffic from sources other than Google.
5. Click here to contact me to discuss the price of fish.

Google Ajax JavaScript Insights & Discussion:

Rendered AJAX URLs were always a band-aid in search of an injury. They were part of Google’s efforts to index the web, even when developers had implemented pretty poor solutions which meant that Googlebot couldn’t crawl their URLs.

It is important to remember that JavaScript Sites Lose Out on 35% of Traffic and Revenue and of course, that there are issues with JavaScript: JavaScript Issues With Crawling and Indexing.

Leaving a URL only accessible by JavaScript really should be a last-ditch solution. Unfortunately Google is a fan of it, and until that changes, the world has to put up with buggy, slow-loading, resource intensive URLs whose dynamic elements add little or no value beyond a developer effectively typing “look at me! Aren’t I clever!”.

More Information:

• Google Announces The End of Rendered AJAX URLs
• JavaScript Sites Lose Out On 35% of Traffic and Revenue
• JavaScript Issues With Crawling and Indexing

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I recently wrote about how Google’s Mobile First is Not Mobile Friendly. Read it now.

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• That naughty Google.
• Dumping its AJAX crawling scheme  just two years after announcing it would.
• Don’t they know JavaScript devs “work” in  five year cycles?
• Joshing aside, this shouldn’t break the internet, and if it does break your site, you really should have paid better attention.
• Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
• Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
• Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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