Google just wrote something on the webmaster central blog about A Spiders View of Web 2.0. Most people at this point know that the search engines have issues with javascript and flash but there was a good tip on how ajax links and static links can coexist.

Here’s what it said:

When creating your links, format them so they’ll offer a static link as well as calling a JavaScript function. That way you’ll have the Ajax functionality for JavaScript users, while non-JavaScript users can ignore the script and follow the link. For example:

<a href=”ajax.htm?foo=32” onClick=”navigate('ajax.html#foo=32'); return false”>foo 32</a>

Note that the static link’s URL has a parameter (?foo=32) instead of a fragment (#foo=32), which is used by the Ajax code. This is important, as search engines understand URL parameters but often ignore fragments.

This technique is being referred to as Hijax

Until there are some better operations in place to crawl ajax it’s best to create a separate version for bots and also for people who don’t have javascript (mobile devices etc) for usability purposes.