Allow Google to index content loaded by AJAX when clicked

Question

I have read many articles about how Google handles AJAX loaded content, and I am aware that Google is now supposed to index your page like any modern browser now. However, I am still seeing much of the content of my site not getting indexed.

I can't post a link to the site (client confidentiality) - but my situation is as follows: One section on my site has a grid of images - when clicked, further content is loaded via AJAX and displayed on page. This can be closed, and next item in the grid can be clicked to load further content.

Here is an example of the type of code I'm using. (This is an example and not the exact code but gives an idea). Note: I am binding the AJAX event to the a tag on load - and the tag does not have a href attribute (I'm not sure if this is important).

<div id="item 1" class="GridItem">
  <img  src="/img1.jpg" >         
  <h3>Section 1</h3>
  <a data-id="12345" class="showInfo"></a>
</div>
<div id="item 2" class="GridItem">
  <img  src="/img2.jpg" >         
  <h3>Section 2</h3>
  <a data-id="12346" class="showInfo"></a>
</div>
<div id="item 3" class="GridItem">
  <img  src="/img3.jpg" >         
  <h3>Section 3</h3>
  <a data-id="12347" class="showInfo"></a>
</div>
<div id="infoContainer"></div>

---

 $(document).ready(function () {
      $('.showInfo').unbind().on('click touchend', function (ev) {
            ev.preventDefault();
            $("#infoContainer").load('/ajaxpage?id=' + $(this).attr('data-id'), function () {  

              });
        });
});

I want to avoid having all my content loaded on page and hidden - not only will this likely have a negative SEO impact (hidden content is not a good idea) - it would add a large load overhead.

Answer 1

While not ideal for your present situation, you theoretically shouldn't need to do anything very soon:

https://searchengineland.com/google-will-stop-crawling-old-ajax-crawling-scheme-q2-2018-287653

I would use 'fetch and render' in Google Search Console as a first step to solving your problem.