Is This Javascript Link SEO Friendly?

[pirscher]

Hi All,

I saw this directory that uses javascript links and I was wondering if those links are SEO friendly that they use.

When moving the mouse over a link it display the link as:
href="javascript:openpopup_27b5('http://www.example.com/')"

I have a feeling, that since this is not a direct link to a website, that it might not be that good. I am not really fit with javascript, so I am curious what you guys think.

Best,
Manuel

[edited by: tedster at 12:59 pm (utc) on Aug 19, 2010]
[edit reason] disable graphic smile faces [/edit]

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, Manuel.

In the past, Google might not have treated this kind of javascript as a link that passes PageRank. However, in recent times, they are - as long as it is a simple matter to see where the link points from the javascript in the source code - and from this javascript it is very simple to see what the URL is.

There is one case where the link might not pass PageRank - and that is if the javascript function's definition is disallowed by robots.txt.

[walrus]

What is the reason to block a function definition ?
And are external javascripts links treated the same way as inline ?

[tedster]

If a site does paid link advertising, sending the link through a script that is disallowed in robots.txt is one way Google has recommended handling it so that it doesn't transfer PageRank. Google doesn't like paid links that send PageRank very much.

[Robert Charlton]

...sending the link through a script that is disallowed in robots.txt is one way Google has recommended handling it so that it doesn't transfer PageRank.

To ask a tangential question... do such links create PageRank "black holes"? I've been assuming that they do, but I'm not certain of that.

[walrus]

Thanks Tedster

[tedster]

do such links create PageRank "black holes"?

Yes. These JavaScript links, do take a share of the page's total PR vote - and that lowers the value that other links on the page can vote to their target URLs. Their target URL is blocked by robots.txt so it works just like a link with a rel=nofollow attribute.

[Robert Charlton]

These JavaScript links, do take a share of the page's total PR vote...

Thanks. That's what I'd assumed. The uncertainty was created by the Matt Cutts comment to Eric Enge that I quoted in this thread about PR sculpting... [webmasterworld.com...]

Matt went on to say... "I could imagine down the road if iFrames or weird JavaScript got to be so pervasive that it would affect the search quality experience, we might make changes on how PageRank would flow through those types of links."