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SEO/Google-wise, is it OK to link without <a>?

by rinor81
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I've built a price comparison site. The button "More details" next to every product takes the visitor to one of the merchants I'm affiliated with.

The thing is, the button is not an <a> tag. I'm using the <span> HTML tag. The click on the span calls a Javascript function that redirects the visitor to the product page at the merchant's site. The redirect takes place in a new browser tab. There is no splash/transitional screen.

Is it OK?
#&lta&gt #<a> #link #seo or googlewise
  • Profile picture of the author rinor81
    No one knows? Do I need to clarify the answer more?
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  • Profile picture of the author TheContentAuthority
    Rinor81,

    Browsers can see and execute JavaScript seamlessly, Google’s crawler cannot. For content that is generated with JavaScript and that you want to appear in the index, you must provide Google with another way to see it. This could be in the form of a snapshot of HTML for Googlebot to consume.

    You can learn more about how to implement that here,

    https://developers.google.com/webmas...ocs/learn-more

    Hope that helps,

    Shawn
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    • Profile picture of the author Stardustpoint
      Originally Posted by TheContentAuthority View Post

      Rinor81,

      Browsers can see and execute JavaScript seamlessly, Google's crawler cannot. For content that is generated with JavaScript and that you want to appear in the index, you must provide Google with another way to see it. This could be in the form of a snapshot of HTML for Googlebot to consume.

      You can learn more about how to implement that here,

      https://developers.google.com/webmas...ocs/learn-more

      Hope that helps,

      Shawn
      This is correct
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    • Profile picture of the author AlphaWarrior
      Originally Posted by TheContentAuthority View Post

      Rinor81,

      Browsers can see and execute JavaScript seamlessly, Google's crawler cannot. For content that is generated with JavaScript and that you want to appear in the index, you must provide Google with another way to see it. This could be in the form of a snapshot of HTML for Googlebot to consume.

      You can learn more about how to implement that here,

      https://developers.google.com/webmas...ocs/learn-more

      Hope that helps,

      Shawn
      I have used JavaScript to insert today's date in a static html web page. Since several warriors have recently suggested that putting a date on a web page may help with SEO, I have thought about using JavaScript to insert dates to help with SEO.

      Are you saying that crawlers cannot read the date produced by JavaScript?

      If crawlers cannot read the JavaScript produced date, what is a good way to way to add an auto generated date to a static html web page?

      Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author website design
    also some people have javascript disabled. Always better to stick with basic html. Also I've heard googlebot is getting better, or is able to read javascript but I still wouldn't use it for anything essential.
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    no sig needed.
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  • Profile picture of the author rinor81
    Thanks for your answers.

    I actually don't want my affiliate links to be crawled, which is why I didn't use <a>.

    I don't think that anyone has Javascript off these days - otherwise they wouldn't be able to use any of the major sites, like Facebook.
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