Will this javascript affect search/ranking results?

stow

07-10-2012, 08:51 AM

Hi

This maybe obvious to most of you but please bare with me.

Will using the following javascript affect search/ranking results? If so, what should I do instead?

1. User clicks on a product link to see product details:

function nav( productid ) {
document.form.cat_id.value = productid;
document.form.action = 'index.php';
document.form.submit();
}

<a href="javascript:nav('.$productid.');">'.$productname.'</a>

2. Used on a processing script page. Used to go back to the previous page. (Usually back to a form, from a processing script).

<head>
<script language="javascript">
function go_back() {
document.form_back.action = '<?php echo $prev_url; ?>';
document.form_back.submit();
}
</script>
</head>

<body onload="go_back()">
<form name="form_back" method="POST" action="#">
<input type="hidden" name="message" value="<?php echo $message; ?>" />
</form>
</body>

Thank you in advance.

VIPStephan

07-10-2012, 09:23 AM

In code example one search engine spiders might not be able to follow the link. Also, from a user interaction perspective this is awful. HTML has been invented for a good reason. If JavaScript is disabled, the link is non-functional, so what’s the point?

What you should do, and what I can’t stress enough, is make your site functional without JavaScript and only add JS as enhancement. Why are you doing this with a form anyway? Why not just have a plain link to the product detail page? I think you are way overcomplicating things.

stow

07-10-2012, 10:32 AM

Thanks for your reply.
The reason why I used the method in point 1 was because all products come dynamically from the database using php and I don't want to send the product id in the url to the product detail page (as I am want to keep all urls clean).

Im quite new to this so if you could suggest a different solution which would achieve my objective it would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

VIPStephan

07-10-2012, 10:42 AM

Well, to keep your URLs clean there are other methods like rewrite engines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewrite_engine) (a. k. a. pretty URLs (http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/other/using-htaccess-files-for-pretty-urls/)).

stow

07-10-2012, 11:34 AM

Thanks I will look into it.