When is "noscript" spam?

Using noscript to pad a site with keywords

[cellularnews]

Came across a site - ranking at #1 for a keyphrase that interests me and thanks to being puzzled by it, I investigated the source code.

The entire page I was seeing was being generated by a call to a seperate js file, which creates a text poor, graphically rich page.

Then, there was a noscript option for non-javascript enabled browsers that displayed a key word stuffed page, but done cleverly so as not not look obviously like spam.

I am a bit confused about this then.

They are evidently using noscript to "cloak" a ton of keywords into a page that very few people would ever see.

However, using noscript is also quite legitimate as a function.

So, at what point does the noscript command slip over from legitmate replicating of a javascript emulation into SEO spam?

[lammert]

Hello cellularnews,

No one here--except for GoogleGuy--knows the definition that Google uses for spam with the <noscript> tag, but there is an easy way to see what Google thinks of the techniques on the specific page you mentioned.

You can file a spam report at http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html [google.com]. If after one month the page is still at the same position in the SERPs, the site is probably doing nothing against the current Google rules.

[Wizard]

I think that in this particular case it will depend on the 'content' of the graphical-rich page. If this content is the same as text version of the page, for example, there is a big graphic banner saying "Best quality widgets in every colour" and in text version is "<h2>Best quality widgets in every colour</h2>", it'll be considered no cheat. But the worst case would be if even a subject of both versions would differ, and this would almost certainly lead to penalty.

Myself, I use similiar technique in pages that use frames, to force Google to index them properly. I put text-version in NOFRAMES tag, and additionally hide FRAMESET and NOFRAMES with JavaScript, because I noticed Google don't follow links in NOFRAMES. But, to emphasize I intend to be honest SEO, I put exactly the same text in NOFRAMES as in frames seen by user, with no additional keyword stuffing. I hope my site won't be penalized, so far it ranks great.

Bear in mind, that, as far as I know, Google don't follow links placed inside NOSCRIPT tag, so either I know wrong, or the site you described uses something more to make itself crawled.