Internet Shadows

JavaScript links not followed.

On May 20 I wrote this post and set up a new one page site. With the help of several web friends who linked to this page with only JavaScript links I was able to complete this test to my satisfaction. Result: It seems that Google can not or does not follow JavaScript links to any significant degree as the site has not been indexed or cached.

If I had standard HTML links pointing to this page from the same locations I am sure it would have been indexed within days.

So to reveal the site with yet another JS link here it is:

As you can see, the page is nothing fancy, easily spiderable but it still has not been indexed or cached (as of this moment). Now I am going to point the first HTML to this page and see if it gets indexed: XML Daily Test Site HTML link

IMHO Google would be wise not to follow JavaScript links in the future because guys like me could come up with all kinds of new ways to get LOTS of free links. Also, I figure Google has enough problems with using HTML links in there algorithm, they don’t need to add JavaScript links to the mix or they will have a really spammer mess on their hands.

I big thanks to everyone that helped out with this test!

Edit July 30: 

I just checked the test page and the single HTML link from this post got the site cached on July 26, just six days after the link was pointed to the page. So a single HTML link in a blog post did what several JavaScript links could not do in two months. 

Also, the site now ranks #4 for XML Daily – Not a hard ranking to get but it demonstrates the difference of an HTML link to your site compared to a JavaScript link. 

Tags: Google, text links

Category: Featured, Google