For many years, developing rich web applications or an interactive website and navigation involved the use of Flash. While it provided developers with the freedom necessary for animating objects and to send/receive data between the user & website, it hindered the ability of search engine spiders to navigate and index page content, in addition to obscuring relevant content for screen readers or other accessibility aids.In recent times, the rising uses of XHTML and CSS combined with Javascript and its many frameworks have allowed web developers to implement stunning interactivity on websites and to retain full content indexing ability, allowing a website to benefit from organic search results traffic far more effectively than previous Flash implementations and the performance of which is now superior as well as allowing full use of text-mode tools and aids (screen readers, command-line http clients effective resizing / zooming for visually impaired or even mobile devices and smartphones)Ironically, these same technologies have become so flexible that a major issue is presented to web developers which often forces an all or nothing approach. Search engines can only read and index content that is given to it in the original http request and page load as they do not execute most javascript functions. As a result, many websites that display page content dynamically via AJAX, especially those that implement extensive page navigation via AJAX, are not indexed entirely or correctly in search engines. This has a large negative impact on SEO efforts and SERP performance, as large or extensive areas of a site cannot be indexed at all, or perhaps are indexed but with incorrect/broken links when followed.Many web developers are sure to have faced this dilemma over recent times and have been forced to forgo the advantages of extensive AJAX usage and retain a traditional URL page-based navigation so as to avoid these drawbacks. In addition to the indexing issue with AJAX, when using AJAX for website navigation also, you loose the ability to 'deep-link' to a website page URL and also the ability to move back/forward via a browser's history.To solve these issues and to overcome the associated hurdles, there are a number of steps that can and should be taken to ensure a familiar navigational experience for every user and full back-compatibility for search engine crawlers and external backlinks and deep-linking.Landing Pages / Deep Links

Detection of 'static' URLs

Present static website content equivalent

Rewrite to website or application's base URL

Initialise the correct state using the appropriate 'dynamic' hashed URL fragment.Back / Forward HistoryAll website navigation is represented using browser hashes (# character). These are client-side only fragments of URLs and are not sent to a website as part of page requests, and as such will not cause any page reloads to occur when changed. They are however stored in a browser's history to represent distinct content/locations and so can be used to trigger states in the website or application.BookmarkingTo enable logical use of bookmarking, this is a follow-on of the landing page mechanism above and the use of a hashed URL for navigation. As you navigate, the URL fragment changes and is included when you bookmark, allowing you to revisit that URL and return to the same page / state.Visitor Stats and TrackingAs part of the code used for navigation and url handling, page views can be correctly recorded and tracked with the relevant 'static' URLs. This allows you to analyze website traffic using Google Analytics or other similar services comprehensively irrespective of the use of hashed URLs etc.The End ResultThe end result of taking these measures is both a logical and complete user navigation experience for a website and an optimized URL structure and related page content for search engine indexing which should underpin and improve on any SEO strategy implemented for a site.Perigee Global utilizes these very techniques in its own website to produce a smooth and seamless AJAX-based navigation using the jQuery framework and custom javascript functions and page transitions. For more info, visit Performance Based SEO. For more info, visit Performance Based SEO.