What AJAX roll-out could mean for SEO

Google is currently testing on a limited basis new AJAX-based search results, which if rolled out could have "big ramifications" on search engine optimisation (SEO).

Search Engine Land's Matt McGee explains that should Google opt to implement the test, SEO rank checkers may be rendered useless.

And SEO Book's Aaron Wall has claimed that the changes could allow the search engine to set up Google Analytics as the only software able to track keyword referrals from the AJAX results.

Rebecca, in a post for SEO Moz, raises another point about the potential impact of the roll out.

She explains that typically in URLs, information following a hash mark - and the hash mark itself - is not passed to the server in the referring URLs.

However, some of the AJAX Google search results have been displaying the search query string after the hash mark, she added.

As a result, an analytics programme may count Google's referring search traffic as all coming from one source.

"Obviously this is a big deal - it's incredibly important to know which keywords and phrases are bringing in traffic to your site's pages," Rebecca noted.

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