How does Progressive Loading, aka what Facebook does, impact proper search indexation?

[ACNINTERACTIVE]

My client is planning on integrating progressive loading into their main product level pages (those pages most important to conversions and revenue).

I am not skilled on "progressive laoding" but was told this is what Facebook does. Currently, the site's pages are tabbed and use Ajax. Is there any negative impact by changing this up by including progressive loading?

If anyone can help me understand what this is and how it might impact a site from an SEO perspective, please let me know.

thanks a ton!!

Janet

[ACNINTERACTIVE]

Ok so long time in getting back to this, but here's what the client was actually referring to and found a good post on optimization around the new approach. SEO Tips for Infinite Scrolling | Adam Sherk - excellent read! Wasn't sure exactly what this programmer/client was referring to, but this was it! Thanks all for the help!

[RuthBurrReedy]

I think what your developer is talking about, and what Facebook does, is the idea of all of your content being on one page. Progressive loading or "infinite scroll" is when you scroll down to the bottom of a page (like e.g. a category page on your blog) and more content loads on the page itself, as opposed to having to click to page 2 of results to view more content.

The problem with doing this is that even though the content continues to load on the same URL, it's being pulled from another place - so anything beyond that first set of content is being loaded by a JavaScript call. That means that search engines can't index that content that's being loaded as the user scrolls down - and users with JavaScript turned off also won't be able to view the rest of your content. This can be a big problem on main product level pages like your client is thinking of doing, since any links to other products that are beyond that initial page load won't be crawled by search engines.

If you're going to go the infinite scrolling/progressive loading route, make sure that when JavaScript is disabled, there's a crawlable "next page" link to a new, static URL for the next page of results. Basically, make sure that there's a more old-school "previous page/next page" environment with static page URLs that search engines and users without JavaScript can browse, in addition to your progressive loading page.

Here's a link to a similar question from last year that has more information: http://www.seomoz.org/q/infinite-scrolling-vs-pagination-on-an-ecommerce-site

[modulusman]

That doesn't make much sense to me.

Just look at how Facebook loads...  All the text pops right up, and then the images filter in.  It just doesn't make any sense to me how it could 'exclude' anything.

Is there a way you could implement it on a small scale just to test it in the beginning?  Maybe a page or two, or just a section of the site to start with...  Then you would at least have some data to look at and help you make an informed decision.

I haven't been in this part of the world for very long, but I know that progressive loading isn't something that has popped up much in my research/reading.  Even when I looked around (briefly) I didn't find anything that connected to SEO.

[ACNINTERACTIVE]

Thank you Modulusman - I thought so too - but the way the programmer was talking made it seem like it was some major exclusion of content or something.

Thanks for your input!

[modulusman]

I may be wrong here... but isn't progressive loading mostly for images?

If this is what you're talking about..  I'm not sure how it would make much of a difference how things are indexed.  It seems like "once upon a time" things had to be saved a certain way, but I'm not even sure that's the case anymore.

It may help with mobile conversion...  depending on whether you're more focused on copy or media.

I know this isn't much, but maybe it will jog something for someone.