I’m working on making my AJAX-heavy website more crawler-friendly. I’ve already set up my hashes with the #! format, but I’m stuck on the next step.
How do I configure my server to handle the ?_escaped_fragment_= parameter? I want search engines like Google to properly crawl my site.
For example, if someone enters mywebsite.com/?_escaped_fragment_=section in their browser, I want the server to treat it the same as mywebsite.com/section or mywebsite.com/#!.
I’m a bit lost on how to set this up. Any tips or guidance would be super helpful! Thanks in advance for your help.
hey emma! ive dealt with this before. you’ll need to modify ur server config to intercept requests with escaped_fragment. then, use a headless browser (like phantomjs) to render the AJAX content serverside. it’s a bit tricky but doable. lmk if u need more specifics!
To handle the ?_escaped_fragment_= parameter, you’ll need to implement server-side rendering for crawlers. This involves detecting the parameter in your server logic, then serving a pre-rendered version of the page.
Consider using a tool like Prerender.io or setting up your own prerendering service. These solutions can generate static HTML snapshots of your AJAX content, which you can then serve to crawlers.
Remember to update your robots.txt file to allow crawling of these URLs. Also, ensure your server returns the correct HTTP status codes for both the AJAX and escaped fragment versions of each page.
Lastly, test thoroughly with Google’s Fetch as Google tool to verify everything works as expected.
I’ve been down this road before, and it can be a bit of a headache. Here’s what worked for me:
First, you’ll need to modify your server-side code to detect the escaped_fragment parameter. This usually involves adding a middleware or route handler that checks for its presence.
Once detected, you’ll want to serve a pre-rendered version of your page. I found it easiest to use a service like Prerender.io, but you can also set up your own solution using something like Puppeteer.
The tricky part is making sure your pre-rendered content accurately reflects your AJAX-loaded state. You might need to tweak your frontend code to ensure all necessary data is loaded before the pre-render happens.
Don’t forget to test extensively. I spent hours debugging edge cases before I got everything working smoothly. Good luck with your implementation!