Is use of javascript to simplify information architecture considered cloaking?
-
We are considering using javascript to format URLs to simplify the navigation of the googlebot through our site, whilst presenting a larger number of links for the user to ensure content is accessible and easy to navigate from all parts of the site. In other words, the user will see all internal links, but the search engine will see only those links that form our information hierarchy.
We are therefore showing the search engine different content to the user only in so far as the search engine will have a more hierarchical information architecture by virture of the fact that there will be fewer links visible to the search engine to ensure that our content is well structured and discoverable.
Would this be considered cloaking by google and would we be penalised?
-
Pagination is just links. Google can follow the links.
How you set up and offer your pages is important, especially for areas with a lot of pages.
If you have 40 pages of content then I would recommend a structure that offers pages something like "1,2,3,...20...40". If you don't offer a middle selection then that content will probably never be seen.
-
Does the googlebot follow pagination of search results? All our product pages are on the third tier, but their discovery would rely on google following pagination if we cannot use our original approach to infroamtion architecture (ie use javascript to channel the google bot to discover our tier 3 pages)
Thanks for your help!
-
Search engines will determine how deep to crawl a site based on it's importance. You can use the Domain Authority and Page Authority metrics to measure this factor.
In general, you want your content to be a maximum of 3 clicks from your landing page. If you have buried your content deeper, consider either flattening out your architecture or adding links to the buried content. It is very helpful to build external links to the deeper content which will help search engines discover those pages.
-
Ryan is right... you shouldn't do this. If you want to help the crawlers find their way through your site, you could submit a sitemap?
-
Hi Ryan
We use a navigation bar in the header which means that there are a large number of on page links and there is no clear way to determine our information architecture from our internal link structure. i.e. many pages at different levels in our information architecture can be accessed from every page on the site.
Is this an issue? Or will the URL structure be sufficient for the search engines to categorise our content? How can we help the search engine discover content at level 3 in our hierarchy if we insist on using a navigation bar in the header which we believe gives a good user experience?
Thanks!!
-
I have to agree with Ryan. Yes it's cloaking. ... And if you get caught, you could and most likely would be penalized.
-
The actions you describing define cloaking and would be penalized.
If that process were allowed then it would be severely abused. Sites would remove links that were less desirable such as to their privacy page. Sites might also add links.
Search engines insist upon seeing the same content that a user would see.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Personalized Content Vs. Cloaking
Hi Moz Community, I have a question about personalization of content, can we serve personalized content without being penalized for serving different content to robots vs. users? If content starts in the same initial state for all users, including crawlers, is it safe to assume there should be no impact on SEO because personalization will not happen for anyone until there is some interaction? Thanks,
Technical SEO | | znotes0 -
Does the use of a unicode character high up on page adversely affect SEO?
I work for a company in the travel industry and we are currently in the process of building out a 360-degree video landing page to inspire travel to our destination. There is some desire from individuals on my team to use the unicode degree symbol ( ° ) after 360 to ensure clarity. We currently have the ° symbol in the Page Title and H1 tag. Does the use of a unicode character adversely affect SEO? Our concern is that it is very unlikely that people are searching for 360-degree videos using the unicode symbol. We also have it fully written out as well. Just want to make sure we won't get dinged for this. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | smontunnas1 -
Are correcting missing meta descrption tags a good use of time?
My modest website (shew-design.com) has pulled up nearly sixty crawl errors. Almost all of them are missing meta description tags. One friend who knows SEO better than me says that adding meta tags to EVERY page is not a good use of time. My site is available at shew-design.com I'm just getting started in being serious about applying SEO to our site and I want to make sure I'm making the best use of my time. The other error I'm getting are duplicate page names within different directories (e.g. getting started (for branding), getting started (for web). Is this a huge priority? Would welcome your feedback.
Technical SEO | | Eric_Shew0 -
Is using JavaScript injected text in line with best practice on making blocks of text non-crawlable?
I have an ecommerce website that has common text on all the product pages, e.g. delivery and returns information. Is it ok to use non-crawlable JavaScript injected text as a method to make this content invisible to search engines? Or is this method frowned upon by Google? By way of background info - I'm concerned about duplicate/thin content, so want to tackle this by reducing this 'common text' as well as boosting unique content on these pages. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | Coraltoes770 -
Site architecture & breadcrumbs
Hi A client hasn't structured site architecture in a silo type format so breadcrumbs are not predicating in a topical hierarchy as one would desire (or at least i think one would prefer) For example: say the site is called www.fruit.com and it has a category called 'types of fruit' and then sub/content pages called things like 'apples' and 'pears'. So in terms of architecture that should be: www.fruit.com/types-of-fruit/apples and www.fruit.com/types-of-fruit/pears etc etc The client has kept it all flat so instead architecture is: www.fruit.com/types-of-fruit and www.fruit.com/apples and www.fruit.com/pears As a result breadcrumbs follow suit and hence since also not employing logical predication dont reflect the topical & sub-topical hierarchy I have seen that some seo's at least used to think this was better for seo since kept the page/s nearer the root but surely its better to structure site architecture in a logical topical hierarchy so long as dont go beyond say 3 or 4 directories/forward slashes in the url's? Also is it theoretically possible to keep url structure as is (flat) and just edit/customise the breadcrumbs to reflect a topical hierarchy in a silo structure rather than change the entire site architecture & required 301'ing etc in order to do this (or is that misleading or just not possible?) Cheers Dan
Technical SEO | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
An EMD with top level domain of another country. Still useful ?
Normally, EMDs (with couple of keywords in it) has more advantage over other domain names ( I understand other factors matters too & I am aware of EMD update). But what if there is an EMD with couple of keywords but top level domain is of another country. Confused? see ex - shoesinsydney.co.uk Will it STILL have a natural advantage over other domains (with no keywords in them)?
Technical SEO | | Personnel_Concept0 -
Genesis WP Theme H1 Tag not properly Used?
I am in the process of redesigning my website, and I have been working on the Genesis framework a lot lately, so I used the Genesis framework to make my new site. The URL is http://protechig.com As I look at the H1 on the page (homepage only, every other page has solid h1s from an SEO perspective.) The first thing that I see is that the home page H1 is a links (to protech's home page). The second thing that I see is the the title text is replaced with an image (my logo) and there is a text-indent:-99999; and overflow:hiden; I just want to know from an SEO perspective if this is okay, and, if it isn't, what I could/should to to rectify it. Thanks Zach
Technical SEO | | Zachary_Russell0 -
Real-life examples of websites with flat-site architecture
I'm trying to gain a better understanding of the concept of flat-site architecture, especially with larger sites. I'd like to see how larger sites accomplish getting their visitors to the majority of their pages within 3 to 4 clicks. Does anyone know of any actual websites that exemplifies the practice of flat-site architecture?
Technical SEO | | EricVallee340