Breaking the seal

Javascript-free no more

[Tonearm]

I've always avoided putting Javascript on my site. I've heard it can confuse the search engines and I've seen it cause all kinds of functionality problems on other sites. I'd like to start using AdSense though, and it uses Javascript. Does anyone have advice for a guy like me who's about to break the Javascript seal? I've always ignored all JS-related info as it's never pertained to me before.

- Grant

[Jenstar]

Cut and paste the script AdSense supplies you with, and you shouldn't have to worry about it :) No javascript know-how is required ;)

[Bernard Marx]

Javascript won't confuse search engines in itself. It is simply ignored.
Just avoid doing weird things to your page content to accommodate JS. It shouldn't be necessary anyway.

The only way script itself can have a negative effect in SE terms is when you use a large amount of it in the HEAD section of a document, rather than importing it from an external file. Inline script is just more junk that's not contributing to the relevance of your content. Search engines must presumeably take SCRIPT tags into account somewhere though.