Can obfuscated Javascript be used for too many links on a page?
-
Hi mozzers
Just looking for opinions/answers on if it is ever appropriate to use obfuscated Javascript on links when a page has many links but they need to be there for usability?
It seems grey/black hat to me as it shows users something different to Google (alarm bells are sounding already!) BUT if the page has many links it's losing juice which could be saved.......
Any thoughts appreciated, thanks.
-
Hi John
Thank you for your reply. It's kind of what I was thinking - if it feels grey or iffy....it probably is!
The reasoning was that it is a custom system with a list of car manufacturers, with outbound links to their websites. That's 34 external links on every page.
The client didn't develop the system so I'm trying to work with it and optimise as best I can, without needing them to incur development costs.
Thanks again for your reply.
Trevor
-
Hey Trevor -
A couple of things here. First, I would never recommend that someone use obfuscated Javascript on links in order to make it so that the crawlers cannot see them.
Also, I think the "too many links on a page" guideline is not one to follow too strictly. It's not an "error" in the Moz Pro Campaigns because it is a guideline. Depending on your site, you can have many more than 100 links on a page and be fine. Or, you can use other ways (iframes, nav behind Javascript) to have these links available to the crawlers.
Just remember (as I am sure you do) that these links will not pass any link juice and you will need to use other ways to get your pages indexed and to have a good crawler-friendly architecture.
Just my two cents. I don't think you'd be cloaking, but it's starting to get a bit iffy. I'd steer clear.
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
-
Passing link juice via javascript?
Hello Client got website with javascript generated content. All links there (from mainpage to some deeper page) are js generated. In code there're only javascripts and other basic typical code but no text links (<a href...="" ).<="" p=""></a> <a href...="" ).<="" p="">The question is: are those js links got the same "seo power" as typical html href links?.For example majestic.com can't scan website properly and can't show seo metrics for pages. I know google crawls them (links and pages) but are they as good as typical links?</a> <a href...="" ).<="" p="">Regards,</a>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PenaltyHammer0 -
Link backs from same IP? Can it hurt?
We host several client sites on our VPS host. We'd like to add a link back to the footer, however cautious as these are all on the same IP. Will this hurt our SEO?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | idlwebinc
Will Google ignore these link backs?0 -
301ing Pages & Moving Content To Many Other Domains
Recently started working with a large site that, for reasons way beyond organic search, wants to forward internal pages to a variety of external sites. Some of these external sites that would receive the content from the old site are owned, admin'd and/or hosted by the old site, most are not. All of the sites receiving content would be a better topic fit for that content than the original site. The process is not all at once, but gradual over time. No internal links on the old site to the old page or the new site/url would exist post content move and 301ing. The forwarding is mostly to help Google realize the host site of this content is not hosting duplicate content, but is the one true copy. Also, to pick up external links to the old pages for the new host site. It's a little like domain name change, but not really since the old site will continue to exist and the new sites are a variety of new/previously existing sites that may or may not share ownership/admin etc. In most cases, we won't be able to change any external link pointing to the original site and will just be 301ing the old url to the contents new home on another site. Since this is pretty unusual (like I wouldn't get up in the morning and choose to do this for the heck of it), here are my three questions: Is there any organic search risk to the old site or the sites receiving the old content/301 in this maneuver? Will the new sites pick up the link equity benefit on pages that had third party/followed links continuing to point to the old site but resolving via the 301 to this totally different domain? Any other considerations? Thanks! Best... Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945011 -
DAs dropped for many pages?
I recently noticed that the domain authorities dropped by 5 or 6 points for us and for our competitors. And for many other pages that I check regularly. Was the algorithm changed or is it just me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | FCRMediaLietuva0 -
How Many Images on 1 Page Are Acceptable
Example I have a page with a slideshow of 35 pictures. They are all unique pictures and relevant to the page, have unique alt text, though no captions or description surrounding the images. Page also has a lot of unique written content. Question: is this large nr of pictures potentially overwhelming for search engines and they may think it is spammy and it would be a safer bet to only keep the top 10 pictures on such page? I did review this great whiteboard Friday - http://moz.com/blog/image-seo-basics-whiteboard-friday - and I noticed this at very end: "The other part, and I see this happen a lot especially with bigger clients, is when you put lots and lots of images on one page, like an image gallery, those pages tend to be very hard to get indexed. The reason for that is there's not a lot unique textual content. A lot of times it's just overwhelming to users. It doesn't provide a lot of benefit in a search result." My page has been indexed, but will ranking potentially be hurt and to play it safe I better reduce nr of pictures? I do understand the "do what is best for the user" scenario and that is what I am doing with a lot of amazing original pictures not found on any other website. However, with search engines we obviously have to consider how they operate as well. Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
Value in .EDU Link When Listed on Internship Offered Page
My company is looking to hire an Intern and a university - ".edu" - has including the job description on a page with list of "Available Internship", which includes a list of 100 other companies looking for an Intern. Our profile includes a link to our homepage like all other listings. Question: do we know search engines will give zero value to such link as they can tell it is an Internship posting page or is there a good chance it will actually be quite a valuable link?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
Can Keyword-Stuffing on a Single Page Penalize My Entire Site?
Hi forum! I want to improve my internal linking through adding keyword-rich anchor text to my search results pages (my site has an internal search engine for products). For example, if I were a shoes store, my product search engine results are currently:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W
-Running
-Hiking
-Walking
-Track and I want to make them actual keyword-terms by changing them to:
-Running Shoes
-Hiking Shoes
-Walking Shoes
-Track Shoes This creates a problem - the keyword "shoes" is stuffed on the page. I don't care how well these dynamic search results pages appear in search, only the actual product pages. Is it okay to keyword stuff on these pages, or would it penalize my entire site?0 -
Internal linking using exact keywords Bad – Post Panda
Internal linking using exact keywords Bad – Post Panda Any tips for internal linking ,how can we target landing pages to rank well using internal linking. Use of Keywords in within site links, is it bad? Are footer links bad? Use of Siloing artichture bad or good? What a best linking model for Ecommerce Site.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | conversiontactics0