How can Javascript deliver the goods for SEO

I seem to have stimulated a good amount of interest amongst our tech team following on from my post on JavaScript. To be clear there are two good reasons to keep an eye on JavaScript development - Search engine optimisation and Social Media.

In SEO the key is all about separation - let not the JavaScript get near your content. In Social Media, the more you use it the better your site - a real dichotomy. There are two ways to employ JavaScript on a site and they are very similar to the way you deal with CSS:

• Use external files to hold the code


• Progressive Enhancement

The first item is self explanatory, the second is a classic technique that we use in SEO where we want a specific action to occur. The action would depend on whether JavaScript was turned on or turned off. If JavaScript was turned on then the JavaScript actions would occur, if JavaScript was turned off, then the user would simply see a standard hyperlink for example.

In Search engine optimisation terms; whether JavaScript is on or off, a search engine robot would simply see a link. In English terms; we build a page with solid code and build enhancements on top. If the enhancements fail, the page will not show an ugly error, simply a less good way of getting to the results we had intended.

Just in case you are thinking 'what possible use would that be to me?'. Well one instance could be that if you wanted to show your expert list of closely related sites that are stored in your Delicious account you could use Progressive Enhancement techniques on your web page.

As you would rather keep your list in Delicious, where you can add to it or modify it easily - rather than copy the list, you could place it on your web page with some clever JavaScript and keep it up to date through Delicious.

Your web page would use some JavaScript, (it would need to use JSON - activated through JavaScript because JavaScript works on calls to your own server and no elses) and if it all worked it would show the list you were hoping for. If it failed it would simply show a link to your Delicious account and your users would have to click off your page to go see the list - a lot less desirable - but at least it would not show an error. In the main of course it would work and when it did you would be certain that the list shown was the most up to date list and this would save you the trouble of maintaining the list.

In both cases I would be passing a link to my Delicious account and allowing my web page readers to get the information that I wanted to give them and if Javascript, JSON or Delicious failed, no one would know and my page would be unruffled.

As you can see Progressive Enhancement is a technique that is employed for usability as well as for SEO. Progressive Enhancement protects the integrity of your page and gives benefits to user. This is a real win win concept, that requires an understanding of JavaScript, and is a core component of Web 2.0 sites. So we need to keep an eye on JavaScript for the future.

It is only recently that JavaScript has returned to being considered again as a genuinely useful piece of code. As in the early days JAVA kept on failing and different browsers then had different flavours of JavaScript - as a result, lots of sites failed and helped to make the web the nightmare that it was back then...

Nowadays JavaScript has settled down and really is at the heart of Web 2.0. As Web developers, SEO specialists and consumers, we need to be aware of the benefits that JavaScript delivers to help make the web a more optimistic place.

Why Javascript ?

Ok since writing the last post a couple of people have said why are you talking about JavaScript? I apologise dear readers for not explaining earlier...

Working in search engine marketing and social media, a lot of the focus is of course on site or blog optimisation. All sites - including blogs need to be interpreted - by a browser. The browser itself has functionality that is often used, especially in Web 2.0 applications and that functionality is very often JavaScript driven. By and large we all have it and it is turned on.

So my review was really intended as an update on what was out there for my own personal reasons. I did find some interesting things, although I am still appalled as to the amount of poor documentation that exists for Javascript, which is a real shame.

JavaScript, does have some effect on search engine marketing - mainly you want to separate it from the code as JavaScript is still SEO unfriendly. Although it does help a lot with accessibility and usability and also with pay per click campaigns...

JavaScript is the common driver behind many Web 2.0 elements of site functionality. JavaScript can help deliver the correct style sheet to different media readers as well as help with multivariate testing. JavaScript largely gets in the way of SEO and helps sites to fail accessibility sites.

We have just learned that JavaScript is built into Adobe PDF files - we new we were on to something - indeed it would seem that JavaScript may well be going through a renaissance period - although we can't imagine it is going to go through a metamorphosis - more that it is gaining in currency and as with PDF files, we are going to find that it is used more and more... We will see!

Joomla for SEO and business

Joomla has indeed got better although perhaps not as friendly as Drupal it was also disappointingly a lot less safe. My experience so far is not good, but a good six months have passed since I last spent time on developing a Joomla site, so things may be better now.

Having developed only about 11 sites in Joomla I cannot claim to be a prolific Joomla developer, but I can claim to have some experience and my experience aint all roses it has to be said. Out of 11 sites I have found that about five have not developed too much.

I had hoped to create safe, UGC, SEO friendly sites. I have discovered 4 of those less interesting sites were hacked and blinded with a coy message from the hacker, basically saying hacker woz here - thanks guys, thanks a bunch really helpful, I am sure it was worth your while ruining my surprise.

Strangely the sites I cared about were not hacked - maybe they had more up to date versions of Joomla installed. It is certainly the case that Joomla being open source is quick to have its holes plugged quickly. It seems that there have been a few surprises for the developers, so I am reckoning latest versions will be safer. Note to self: go round and update the version of Joomla installed across all the live sites and revisit the older ones.

I have been disappointed with their so called SEO friendliness too - especially with the sites that are alive and kicking - basically if the content is not linked from the front page, it has not been indexed - again I am hoping this has improved in the latest downloads, although I have found a post that may have the information I need Top 10 Joomla! SEO Tips and Tricks.

I will report back my views and discoveries on the sites - the two sites I am focussing on especially are our Advanced Search Engine Marketing site and our Search top tips site.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment about Joomla SEO! I will be back soon.