Hiding rubbish from Google and PR leaks

[realmaverick]

I have two questions, I have a lot of these lately!

First, is hiding rubbish from Google, really so bad?

We all know cloaking is bad, but is it bad for example, to hide a Facebook like button? I want to add 25 to each page, 1 for each item in the gallery.

The second question is, does <a href="javascript:blah"> essentially evaporate link juice?

I'd like to know, what would happen to juice, flowing in to links containing JS.

[tedster]

First thing is that JavaScript and/or form links are often scored as a "real" link. Google establishes a virtual link in their web graph and link equity does flow. Somehow, I doubt that Facebook "Like" scripts evaporate any PR, however. That would not make much sense.

Whether you can or should hide "rubbish" from Google is another question. If you are using a standard FB call, the only part that is really in your page is the image and the rest is in an iframe - so it's not part of your URL it's on a different URL.

I have seen some very big brands hiding certain kinds of rubbish from googlebot via minor amounts of cloaking, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. They hide factors like "sort" options and so on. But I don't immediately see the need for this type of experimental risk in the case of Facebook buttons.

Do you really need 25 on a single page? That seems a bit over th top to me, and potentially overwhelming to your visitors. Then again, I suspect I am ADHD (as are many people) and that many elements on a gallery page would overwhelm my scattered attention.

[realmaverick]

Hi ted, thanks for replying.

Our users generate our content in our galleries, it's their artwork. It's a community, where users create friendships etc. They requested being able to "Like" their friends work, via the gallery. Rather than having to visit the big page for every single piece of work they like.

In the test environment, it doesn't look cluttered, it sits nicely with the thumbnail of the piece of art. It also works wonderfully and would generate a lot of traffic. Especially since guests would be able to "Like" the artwork via the gallery while they browse.

But my issue is, the possible effects this could have on my ranks. I'd rather Google couldn't see it, but also scared of hiding it. So at present, I have not fulfilled the users request, which is frustrating for both them and me.

[tedster]

How about launching the feature, not hidden, on a small part of the site? You could take some baseline stats and then watch for the effects it causes.

If I were to guess, I'd guess it will not hurt you in Google.

[FranticFish]

Most website owners won't consider the potential to waste PR via Facebook 'like' buttons and similar Social Media signals, so my guess would be that Google won't let sites bleed PR that do this.

In fact I'd speculate that by trying to optimise these you might even remove signals that would help you in Google. These days, likes are links, and I think that Google wants to count them. They know how the standard FB widgets look and that's what they're looking for.

[netmeg]

I don't think it will hurt you with Google, but I think it's going to hurt your page load something fierce.