Google Indexing Drop Down Text From Forms

[bakedjake]

Go to your favorite page with an HTML drop down list in a form. Find it in Google cache. Click the new "text only cache" feature.

G is now indexing text in form drop down

option

tags.

[jcoronella]

That is a REALLY cool find Jake. Has anyone seen this before this update?

[Robert Charlton]

Has anyone seen this before this update?

I'd seen this (indexing text in form drop down option tags), actually, in Jan 2002. I forget how I first noticed it, but I wasn't happy about it. I was dealing with a page with a drop down list and was concerned that the list would distort the keyword density on the page itself.

[bakedjake]

Robert, I've never noticed this before. Did they turn it off then turn it back on, or am I just crazy?

[goodroi]

I noticed this back in 2003. I had a drop down list of the 50 U.S. states and Google indexed it. Caused me problems with keyword density. I never noticed if it was constantly on or just something that they have been testing a few times.

[mosschops]

They have been reading drop-downs for a long time - it's earned some handy SERPS for me - achieved by accident as our drop-down is v. user-friendly, but appreciated nonetheless.

[bakedjake]

weird. i swear i've never noticed it before.

[ogletree]

I have a site with a drop down list that ranks for things in the drop down list. They are unique to only the drop down list. I have used them in the past to rank for mispellings.

[Robert Charlton]

...I had a drop down list of the 50 U.S. states and Google indexed it. Caused me problems with keyword density. I never noticed if it was constantly on or just something that they have been testing a few times.

Coincidentally, this is exactly my situation... and it's very possible they may have turned it off. But the states that came up were only in the drop down list, and I know no one was linking with those state names to the site.

jake - You may be crazy anyway. I don't know you that well. ;)

[jcoronella]

<retracted>

[caveman]

Me too Jake. Definitely had some of those indexed in '02. Whether G's ability to index them came and went, I have no idea. But, we first saw it at a competitor's site, and launched a competing site with a variation of the same feature, and that was late '02, which is how I know.