Mediarun Search Marketing News

Guardian makes web comments more SEO-friendly

November 05th 2009

Search Engine Optimisation News

The Guardian has introduced changes to make comments on its website more SEO (search engine optimisation) friendly.

This means that the newspaper is not using Javascript to display comments anymore, which brings with it a number of benefits, as noted by Graham Charlton on the Econsultancy blog.

Comments will now be quicker to load up, says Mr Charlton, as the old Javascript system took "way too long at times".

Mr Charlton added that comments would now be accessible to more web users, as those who require screen readers and other technologies to assist with web browsing often do not have Javascript enabled.

Users accessing the site from mobiles can now read the comments and leave their own, though they will have to go to the desktop version to do this, as comment functionality is missing from the Guardian mobile site.

The content of the comments can now be indexed by the search engines, meaning search engine optimisation (SEO) benefits for the website, and for those dropping links into comments, at least until the Guardian makes them 'nofollow'.

With the recent announcement that Twitter updates will now be integrated into Google search results, businesses should be aware that putting the microblogging site to good use is another way to improve their Google search ranking.

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