Sites with Javascript redirect

Cheating or not cheating?

[bluemi]

Just an idea: let's say I build a "prehistorical" website for browsers which cannot read Javascript and, of course - search engine spiders. I fill this site with some nice, keyword rich text and links for the spider to read. However, people with a modern browser, which are practically all, get redirected to another, "real" site. Is this cheating? I mean, it uses basically the same technique as utilizing the <noframes> tag in frames pages.

[ciml]

Firstly is the issue of human review. If your competitors report you, or if you're flagged for some reason then someone at the 'plex may take a look at the site to see if it's the kind of thing they want to list. I would like to think that you would be given a clean bill of health if the content in both versions is essentially the same.

My main worry would be that spammers start to use the method you're describing en masse. This might cause a reduction in search quality and a lot of complaints. About a year ago, heavy cross-linking of domains was seen in this light and we know that the penalties were also triggered by people who cross-linked for legitimate purposes. This, in my opinion, suggests some potential for danger in the future.

Personally, I wouldn't rely too heavily on <noframes> content either (although some people report no problems getting it ranked well).

[bluemi]

Yes, that's about what I thought. I don't intend to use this technique since my sites are doing well without any kind of "cheating" (I use the noframes tag at one, and it works very well for me since quite long time). However, I have seen sites using this technique, so I thought I ask other people's opinions about it.