Are js drop down menu links visible to SEs?

Discussion in 'Link Development' started by adsensenewb, Jun 6, 2006.

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  1. #1
    Are links in a js dropdown menu visible to search engines? What about DHTML drop down menus?
     
    adsensenewb, Jun 6, 2006 IP
  2. elcash

    elcash Peon

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    #2
    If I understand it correctly, the answer is NO. The recommendation is to have html menus in addition to the javascript (this also solves the problem of people who have js turned off in browsers, and makes your site generally more accessible).

    Someone else please correct me if I am wrong, as I heard someone say the other day that SEs are getting better at navigating JavaScript"

    DHTML afaik is just a buzzword for a combination of html, css, and js so the answer would still be NO wherever you're using js.
     
    elcash, Jun 6, 2006 IP
  3. elcash

    elcash Peon

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    #3
    A good way to test what spiders can see (and index) might be to try your site in a text-based browser, such as Lynx
     
    elcash, Jun 6, 2006 IP
  4. loress

    loress Peon

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    #4
    i agree that they are generally not seen

    there is a site that i have used before that gives you a spiders view of your site, can't find that in my bookmarks (really must clean them out) but found another one that does a pretty good job too

    http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php interestingly enough I found this on their site too... "It is highly recommended to use the <noscript> tag, as opposed to _javascript based menus. The reason is that _javascript based menus are not spiderable and all the links in them will be ignored as page text"
     
    loress, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  5. patrick

    patrick Guest

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    #5
    You can build fully spiderable multi-level dropdown or flyout menus using only html and CSS, provided you include a behaviour file which enables IE to apply the hover function to elements other than an <a href....

    The book 'More Eric Meyer on CSS' (and I'm sure many others) provides all the information you need to build it yourself, or you can buy pre-made menu systems as add-ons for Dreamweaver from companies such as Projectseven.com
     
    patrick, Jun 7, 2006 IP
    stuw likes this.
  6. iShopHQ

    iShopHQ Peon

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    #6
    If you put the links inside a Div and use JS to turn visibility for that div on and off then they are visibile to SEs.

    see menu on www.discountshq.com
     
    iShopHQ, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  7. stuw

    stuw Peon

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    #7
    An excellent suggestion. An easy way to double check is to use firefox with the developer extensions installed. The developer extension allows you to view sites with no css. So turn of javascript in your browser and turn off css. If you can still navigate your site then so should anything else.
     
    stuw, Jun 7, 2006 IP
  8. Savweb

    Savweb Guest

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    #8
    Yes, this is the only way to do that correctly, but instead of "visibility", you should better use .style.display="none" and .style.display="block"
     
    Savweb, Jun 7, 2006 IP