- 1. Do Your Keyword Research
- 2. Incorporate the Keywords in Your Site's Content
- 3. Use Specific HTML Tags for On-Page Optimization
- 4. Choose Title Tags Carefully
- 5. Use Meta Descriptions
- 6. Use Meta Keywords
- 7. Pick Meaningful URL Names for Pages
- 8. Incorporate & Optimize Images
- 9. Use Flash with Caution
- 10. Be Aware of JavaScript's Limitations
- Wrap-Up
10. Be Aware of JavaScript's Limitations
JavaScript can be a vital element of your site. However, if you're considering using JavaScript to power the navigation for your site, you might want to rethink that strategy. Search engine spiders are very childlike. As discussed in the tips just above, they cannot open an image and read the keywords on it; nor can they follow links in Flash files.
In the same way, search engine spiders cannot follow JavaScript links. So they'll come to your home page and not go any farther because they cannot follow to where the JavaScript link is pointing. What that means for your site is that unless you provide direct links to the pages pointed to by the JavaScript, the spiders will never find the pages and nothing will get indexed by the search engines.
To resolve this issue, provide an alternate form of navigation at the bottom of your page, or have a non-JavaScript-created link that points to your sitemap page. This will guide the spiders through your pages, and still allow you to keep the cool and funky things that your pages and site can do through JavaScripting.