One good example of a beautifully executed javascript site which does not rank well is the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which has an excellent looking search result but fails to impress any spider by creating an invisible site and does not rank at all well for the search term “chocolate”.

A spider is a program that uses a particular method to go through the web and read web pages.  It is essential to create web pages that are visible to this program in order for it to understand and categorise a web page.  When the page is invisible, as is the case with RMCF, it becomes difficult for Google, Yahoo, Ask and Live/MSN to understand what the page is about and therefore rank it.

The method a search engine uses to rank a page is called an ‘algorithm’ which at its core is a complex mathematical formula.  This ‘algorithm’ is what is used to rank a website.  For this to work properly, a website needs to be visible to not just a human but also a search engine.

Cloaking is the best method to use in order to overcome problems when a website has been created in javascript.  While in the past the term ‘cloaking’ has been used to describe a practice that was against Google’s webmaster guidelines, cloaking is now used to describe the practice of delivering information to a search engine in a way it understands, while the website itself is in a format which is inaccessible to a search engine.  The creation of a site invisible to the search engines necessitates the creation of a visible one which does not interfere with the user experience.  This secondary website should mirror the original one, delivering the search engine spiders content they can read.

One form of cloaking is simply redirecting spiders to a completely different set of pages, inaccessible through any other link or method.  Redirecting a search engine spider to a completely different page through detection involves detection.  Any incoming request to a webpage includes some sort of identification by the requestor of the page.  Checking this and taking a search engine’s program off to a different set of pages solves the problem of invisible content.

The delicate balance of delivering a different site to different users can also be handled through CSS or cascading style sheet design.  This is a slightly more involved method but ensures no unexpected URLs or pages become visible to users, and can be part of a larger accessibility project.  This delivers the content of a javascript page to search engine spiders or those with accessibility readers on the page they arrive on without any redirection.

By doing a search for a company name, such as the one above, then clicking on “cache” and then selecting “text only version”, you can get a clear snapshot of how your page looks to a search engine.  Using an essay-like structure analysis of the page you can quickly determine what a search engine will perceive your page is about, and why issues in ranking may be occurring.  Technology Weekly has a number of articles on research and fixing common problems to sites such as “How to do Keyword Research”   “Optimise webpage titles to capture visits”  “Optimising your images for search” and “Getting Links in a B2B environment”

Javascript will render your website invisible to search engines so remember to always have a spiderable copy.  If you aren’t sure about the solution implemented on your site, one way to get expert advice quickly and easily is to attend a search conference and submit your site to a site clinic.  Experts in the field will look over your site, quickly identify trouble areas and offer suggestions and advice.  The next UK-based search-focused conference is SMX London 

Judith Lewis is Search Director at i-level and has been working in search since 1996.  You can hear her speak on SEO at the A4U expo