It looks like Googlebot reads my external JS file

[omegaman66]

I didn't think google bot could read links I have in an external JS file but apparently it can.

First the JS file details. It is a menu that I want spidered. It only contains html that is printed/called via the document.write'(html here)'; code.

This code is in a javascript file only so I can change the code and have the menu change throughout the website.

So back to the issue/question. I just discovered in google webmaster tools the internal link section and it APPEARS that the menu is being read because I show all the pages on the website linking back to the web pages in the menu (menu.JS).

Is this right? Are is something else going on that is tricking me into thinking that the menu is being read?

[lucy24]

There are several recent posts about the googlebot's new-found interest in .js files. In my case I've recently had to 403 it out of the /piwik directory, where it's been following a link that exists only in javascript.

[g1smd]

Menu building in general has moved on to using plain HTML for the links and anchor text, CSS to style it and optionally a bit of javascript to animate the movement. I've not see HTML written out by document.write in many a year now.

[omegaman66]

I have had this website for a very long time and taught myself as I went. PHP would have been had I gone with that originally but that was way over my head at the time. Now I am stuck with most of my pages in html when I really need the ability to use the "include" option that php offers.

But hopefully this spidering of the content of my menu will allow me to keep the simply JS file throughout the site.

[tedster]

omegaman66 - on Apache you can keep the .html extension and still parse any php code within the source. See Parsing HTML as PHP [webmasterworld.com]

Best of both worlds!

[lucy24]

I've not see HTML written out by document.write in many a year now.

Ah, so you're not one of the people snooping around my site then ;) (Slight exaggeration. I use it in selected locations, not universally.)

Wouldn't be much point in picking up an external .js file-- which googlebot definitely does-- if you can't read it.

[omegaman66]

I am aware of the html parsing option but have desided against it. That would add overhead to the server and slightly slow down the page load speed.

And I just prefer to keep things simple. I just don't like work arounds like that sometimes. Maybe I should consider it.

[tangor]

Keep it even more simple. Check out server side includes (SSI)... Given today's machines, gzip, etc. there's not a gnat's whisker difference in "speed" in using them.

[omegaman66]

But SSI would require the urls #*$!x.html to #*$!x.shtml correct?

[tangor]

same parser used... the default is shtml... but can be parsed to include htm html...

[rainborick]

In your .htaccess file, add:

AddHandler server-parsed .html .htm

and your current HTML files will be parsed for Server Side Includes.