I have devised architecture for developing websites that allows for search engine friendly Silverlight web sites. The current guidelines from Microsoft for Silverlight search engine optimization (SEO) is that they are working with search engines to help them index XAML files, but with Silverlight 2 bundling those XAML files into a XAP file those search engines will have more work than they bargained for to index this new breed of rich interactive applications.
My method involves using HTML for the purpose that Tim Berners-Lee had in mind, content. All of the site content will be housed in semantically correct HTML. This way if the person viewing your web site does not have Silverlight installed they can still view all of the content of the site. Coupled with CSS and JavaScript this “No-Silverlight” version of the site can be quite compelling. However, if the user has the Silverlight plug-in then the rich interactive interface comes out and the site dazzles the viewer.
There are many benefits to this methodology:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Centrally Managed Content
- Accessibility and Portability
- Localization
- Time Savings
- No Need for Specialized Skill Sets to Maintain
I have written five blog entries describing some of these benefits. The five blog entries that I've already written on this technique can be found here:
- Silverlight SEO
- More on Silverlight SEO
- Centrally Managed Content
- Accessibility and Portability
- Localization
I'm still working on a working demo of this technology. Look for a link for this coming soon. I wrote these blog entries months ago, but it is just now coming into use a lot at work. We've named it "SilverSpine" because we call the HTML content the "spine" of the site. Please let me know if you have any questions, or room for improvement.