How to do Search Engine Optimization for Web Applications

Question

I am currently developing a single-page web application that is focused on functionality. It doesn't really have or need long paragraphs of text, and those that are there are loaded dynamically via javascript and AJAX.

Normally search engine optimization tips revolve around getting the right word count percentages, etc. But what are the best practices for SEO when your application is heavily reliant on AJAX? A landing page with descriptive text is not an option - it's important that users can immediately start using the application, and it's rather obvious what it does once it's loaded.

With meta tags fading in importance in modern search engines, is link-building the only solution or are there tricks to help search engines know what an AJAX-based web application is about?

Answer 1

Google has a written specification suggesting how you might make an AJAX web application better crawlable by their robots.

The fundamental principle is that you make a static html version of key pages, and let the crawler know these pages exist, and the relationships between them, using the #! url fragment syntax.

Answer 2

Somewhere you'll have to explain:

• What so great about your app
• How your app is working ("for dummies" style)
• Who you are and why you did it
• etc

You can use all this content to do SEO (no ajax is needed for that).

Forget about making ajax crawlable if you don't have any text inside your app anyway.