Hi: I need some advice from our resident programmer and SEO guru's. A prospective client is using the OnClick JS command to do some internal tracking of link and clicking 'footprints' on their website. I'm very concerned the Onclick links will not get spidered by the SE's. And since I'm helping them improve their organic listings, I need to know if I have to manually redo these links. Here's an example of how they are configured: ------------ < a href="http://www.example.com" onClick="go('http://www.example.com')">Example Link< /a> ---------- Will that link format get spidered and given full credit as a regular html link? Can anyone offer proof that such links are or are not linked (rather than guessing or hearsay)? Any help or tips would be very much appreciated. Hank
My test with this code <html> <head> <script> function go(str) { alert(str); //return false; } </script> </head> <body> <a href="http://www.example.com" onClick="return go('http://www.mysite.com');">Example Link</a> </body> </html> Code (markup): showed the javascript was running but the but the actual link was in charge. If the javascript returns false then it is available to manage the redirect and the href link never gets actioned. I don't know for sure the search engine impact but I can help you test it. My bigger concern would be that other users will misunderstand what he is trying to do and decline link exchanges or black list the site. You will then spend time discussing and explaining and I think you have better things to do. Sarah
Hi Sarah: Thanks for the quick reply! I guess my big concerns are two fold: 1. Will the SE spiders follow the ahref like a "normal" link without the OnClick and 'count' the link and subsequent receiving page; 2. Will the OnClick links and their anchor text carry the 'normal' value of a straight html link without the OnClick. What I mean by the word "count" above is not so much that G or Y or MSN will or won't count the link as any given link (in other words, I'm trying to determine if the OnClick link would be seen and spidered and treated like any normal ahref link). I hope that makes sense. Thanks. Hank
I don't know the answer to that but here's an experiment you can do. In my blog I made a post about a scam and gave a link to the Domainz whois page for New Zealand. Like most domain registrars they don't have an index or catalogue of their information but because the form is a GET you can save searches and link to them from another page. So, to experiment. Find 2 NZ websites where there isn't alot of competition based on their domain name. Do a whois search and save the urls put them up on a home page (discretely) in a straight format and the onclick format wait a week or so and see if either / both of the domain pages come up on a search. To see the effect of my one teeny link just search google for nbo nz and you'll see a domainz page at the top. You should get a similar effect. Sarah
Hiya I've set up an experiment at http://sarahk.pcpropertymanager.com/blog/onclick-js-in-the-link-ahref/50/