I’m setting up a javascript-based menu for a client, and all the menu links etc. are of course all dynamically written by the script in the browser.
So I’m wondering, is this a hinderance to SEO, specifically for Google, or does Google also search inside tags for URLs in code? e.g. stuff like:<script>
...
menuLink[5] = '/content/aboutus.html';
...
</script>Will Google recognise and crawl this?
If not, is there a solution, like perhaps putting all the menu links inside a tag in plain html, so Google can see all the links?
I believe I read recently that they are looking at doing that, but I don’t know for sure. Not sure anyone knows for sure, but maybe someone else out there is more knowledgeble than I in this area.
One of the aforementioned links may have covered this, but your best bet is to also include text links, maybe at the bottom of the page, and a site map with direct links to the pages. This will give the spiders plenty of links to follow and find the pages.
I always advise against javascript generated links (document.redirect, etc..) but i have seen several sites that have completely javascript generated menus, and most of their pages still get indexed by Google.
i can’t divulge the names of the sites due to client confidentiality, but i can assure you that Google has logic that can read the javascript if it’s not complex.
