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Can I make search engines disregard certain text?

by Laura B
18 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I ask not for any black-hat type of reason, but because at the beginning of each post on one of my blogs, I like to put a little blurb about what song is playing on my iPod at the moment.

However, I don't want to rank for song names or artists, so is there a way I can mark them in the code so the search engines don't take that text into account?
#disregard #engines #make #search #text
  • Profile picture of the author Ambius
    If the text was inserted by a javascript document.write() command, then the search engine crawler should not be able to execute and read the javascript output.
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    • Profile picture of the author TristanPerry
      Originally Posted by Ambius View Post

      If the text was inserted by a javascript document.write() command, then the search engine crawler should not be able to execute and read the javascript output.
      Actually Google have been able to execute a decent amount of Javascript for over a year now. So a quick document.write() would be something they could pick up on.

      Unfortunately the answer is there's no way to make the SEs disregard a certain part of the page without cloaking (which isn't allowed in the SEs eyes). I'd personally just put it in there, and not worry whether it ranks.

      If the entire page is about a particular topic (not related to the song you mention), I doubt that Google et al would allow for that page to rank if someone did type-in that song keyword, since - especially due to recent moves towards LSI - it'd be clear that the page isn't about the song being mentioned.

      In short, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd avoid the JS route though since Google could still index it, and it'd look a little bit conspicuous.
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        The most sure route is to put your song info into an image, but that is such a pain to do sometimes, because that takes an extra few minutes to do...
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        • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
          Originally Posted by tpw View Post

          The most sure route is to put your song info into an image, but that is such a pain to do sometimes, because that takes an extra few minutes to do...

          Interesting thought Bill - maybe the basis for a quick product - type text, convert to image, upload to blog....

          sigh - this goes on page 79 of my idea list now

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          • Profile picture of the author Ambius
            Originally Posted by jacktackett View Post

            Interesting thought Bill - maybe the basis for a quick product - type text, convert to image, upload to blog....

            sigh - this goes on page 79 of my idea list now

            --Jack
            there's probably already php scripts to do this so making a page to generate images should be super simple.


            IRT TristanPerry
            I understood that google would only read the NOSCRIPT output, not the document.write
            Although, docwrite is such a simple command that I would not be shocked if googlebot has learned to read them.
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            • Profile picture of the author paulgl
              There is no need to block any text.

              Google knows what your page/post is about regardless of a few
              snippets here or there that don't match.

              Google rarely runs javascript to find content. So you could use that.
              But again, what's the point?

              Why not rank for extra words? No harm done if the rest of your post
              is optimized. In fact, I would suggest you don't try anything to hide
              text from a search engine. The only true way that is not frowned upon
              would be to make an image.

              If it were really that easy to rank...your song title would not register
              a blip most likely in that context.

              Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Laura B
    Thanks, Ambius - so in looking this up, I found this:

    <script type="text/javascript">
    document.write("Hello World!");

    If I replace "Hello World!" with my text and put this whole thing in my code, that's all I'd need to do?
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  • Profile picture of the author Ambius
    yes, that's basically all you need to do. Also, your server-side script that injects this line of javascript should use an escape character for the double-quote symbol. The escape for a " in javascript is \"

    for example:
    document.write("this is the \"best\" song ever");
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  • Profile picture of the author Laura B
    Okay, I know NOTHING about Javascript, so when you say "server-side script," you mean there needs to be some sort of script on my server to make this work? Other than putting in the code I already mentioned?
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    • Profile picture of the author suaveymcsuave
      Originally Posted by Laura B View Post

      Okay, I know NOTHING about Javascript, so when you say "server-side script," you mean there needs to be some sort of script on my server to make this work? Other than putting in the code I already mentioned?
      Hey,

      I'm no javascript wizard myself, however, I did a quick search for you and a server-side script is something that is ran on the server side. Even though Wikipedia isn't always reliable you should check out their entry on "server side script".

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    • Profile picture of the author GameVoid
      Originally Posted by Laura B View Post

      Okay, I know NOTHING about Javascript, so when you say "server-side script," you mean there needs to be some sort of script on my server to make this work? Other than putting in the code I already mentioned?
      You don't need anything on the server side. I think he was under the impression that you had an application that was updating your blog in real time with what song is currently on your iPod.

      If you are just manually putting in what song was playing when you wrote that particular post, then the javascript you saw is all you need, you don't need anything on the server.
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      • Profile picture of the author suaveymcsuave
        Originally Posted by GameVoid View Post

        You don't need anything on the server side. I think he was under the impression that you had an application that was updating your blog in real time with what song is currently on your iPod.

        If you are just manually putting in what song was playing when you wrote that particular post, then the javascript you saw is all you need, you don't need anything on the server.
        Simpler the better, right?
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      • Profile picture of the author Ambius
        Originally Posted by GameVoid View Post

        You don't need anything on the server side. I think he was under the impression that you had an application that was updating your blog in real time with what song is currently on your iPod.

        If you are just manually putting in what song was playing when you wrote that particular post, then the javascript you saw is all you need, you don't need anything on the server.
        yes, that is exactly what I was thinking but now that I read her post again, it sounds like she is manually typing the name of the song of her iPod, which means there is no server-side code to worry about. However, my post about escape characters is still valid if she wants to include a double-quote symbol in her output.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jordan Kovats
    Unless you are listening to the same song all the time, or the song title has an obscure name, I would worry about ranking for that text.
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  • Profile picture of the author Google.me
    Originally Posted by Laura B View Post

    I ask not for any black-hat type of reason, but because at the beginning of each post on one of my blogs, I like to put a little blurb about what song is playing on my iPod at the moment.

    However, I don't want to rank for song names or artists, so is there a way I can mark them in the code so the search engines don't take that text into account?
    Use the more tag if you use wordpress this way you can decide which paragraph or exerpts shows up on your home page from different post. This way you dnt have to have the blurb show up instead.

    If your worried about the description snippet of the blurb showing up in serps use the all-in-one-seo plugin to add a custom meta description.
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  • Profile picture of the author Laura B
    Thank you all for your help! I'm sorry I didn't get back here sooner - I stopped getting notifications of replies to this topic for some reason.

    GameVoid is right - I'm just typing in the song that's playing at the time I write the post.

    I guess to be more specific about my worry: It's not so much that I could conceivably rank for a song name or artist (I know it's unlikely anyway) but since I normally try to have my primary keyword for a page right near the beginning of my article, it seems weird to have something totally unrelated there instead. It's like I want the search engines to see the actual first paragraph as the beginning, rather than the song blurb.

    I thought about the image route as well but am not sure I want to go to the extra trouble. Jack, if you create such a product, count me in!

    I do give each page a custom meta title and description, so that should help.

    All in all, I know I'm going to a lot of trouble to figure out how to include something that really isn't necessary, but I just enjoy doing it so it's worth it to me.

    Thanks again, everyone!
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  • Profile picture of the author GuerrillaIM
    Create the text as an image and then store the image in a folder that is dissalowed via robots.txt.
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