NoScript and SEO

JavaScript allows web developers to have their web pages react to user actions e.g. cascading menus. And despite the many incompatibilities between different browsers, the use of JavaScript is now ubiquitous and by all accounts a successful technology. However, when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), JavaScript is problematic.

Search engine spiders like those used by Google, Yahoo, and MSN ignore JavaScript. The result of this is that what the crawlers "see" can be quite different than what users see. In addition, if JavaScript is the sole method of navigation, the search engines may not be able to index a site properly.

To remedy these issues, web developers can use the noscript tag. This tag allows alternative navigation and text to be included in a web page, but only shown to users that don't support JavaScript. Search engines, of course, would also see the contents within the tag. The problem with this technique is that search engine spammers quickly exploited the tag by stuffing keywords and irrelevant text in them an attempt to achieve high rankings. Once the search engines caught wind of this abuse they adjusted their algorithms to reduce and possibly eliminate any value from text in between noscript tags.

Recently, I've had a few discussions with co-workers about what role, if any, the noscript tag currently plays when it comes to SEO. My opinion is that using the tags won't automatically lead to a penalty unless the copy within the tags is completely different than the rest of the page. At the same time, I think there's likely not going to be any benefit either. If the only optimization I can come up with for a page is to include noscript tags, then it's probably a good sign that the page is as good as its going to get.

Still, if you're inclined to use the tags, the way I would approach them is by asking yourself these two questions:

• Would the page in question fail a manual audit by a search engineer at Google?
• Would you be embarrassed if all of your customers saw the copy within the tags?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, you're likely treading in to search engine spam territory. Proceed at your own risk.

Note that I'm also using this post as a little test. I've got a noscript tag embedded in the page. The blurb between the tags currently returns 0 results in Google. In a few days I should be able to answer whether such text is included in Google's search results.

Results

Update: June 21, 2007
I've confirmed one of my readers comments. The text within the noscript tag is indeed indexed and it is considered when determining what results to show on Google.

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