What to do when visitors have Non-Javascript Running

This effects Adsense very much.

[Erku]

How do you monetize your site when people have non-javascript installed and running. That means (estimated 11 percent) don't see your ads.

What to do? Earlier I sent a request to ADsense to see if they can do something about this.

What do you do?

[Erku]

No solution?

[uncle_bob]

Couldn't you put an alterative banner ad in between noscript tags, so only browsers with javascript turned off should display it?

[greatstart]

You can place a nojavascript tag on your pages saying "This site must be viewed with javascript enabled".

[Scruffy]

Best (near) solution I have seen to this is a site that used noscript tags to show up an error message directing the user to a help page, which gave very detailed instructions on how to turn on scripting in various browsers.

You can lead a horse to water... ;-)

[OptiRex]

That means (estimated 11 percent) don't see your ads.

Is this from your stats or a figure you have seen bandied around?

I've just checked mine and my visitors for the past few months have been 0% javascript disabled!

[encyclo]

Statistics of users with JS disabled are often over-stated (usually because some bots are mistaken for users). However, there is still a small number of users without Javascript.

As AdSense relies on Javascript there is no way of showing it when JS is disabled. The best idea is therefore to display something else instead - like some affiliate links or a banner ad. Place the alternative content between

noscript

tags just after your AdSense code:

<script type="text/javascript">
/* Your AdSense code */
</script>
[b]<noscript><a href="http://example.com/page.html"><img src="banner-image.jpg" height="768" width="68" alt="banner ad"></a></noscript>[/b]

[Jafo]

If my users disable their javascript, they are going to have a hard time on my site.

[Scruffy]

Ouch Jafo.
Is that bad news for them or for you?

[victor]

It continues to be US-CERT's policy to recommend:

It is possible to disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX in your web browser. We recommend that you do so if you are browsing web sites that you are not familiar with or do not trust.

[us-cert.gov...]

If your livelihood depends on people disegarding that advice, then things may get precarious.

As a straight-forward business plan, you may need to ensure absolutely that people can trust your site -- so they may be willing to run your scripts on their computer on your behalf.

[anton23]

Well, my impression is that joe-normal-surfer don't even think that javascript can be dangerous.

[jomaxx]

Honestly, who gives a cuss what CERT's official stand is?

Anyway my take is that the actual number is closer to 4 or 5 percent, and there's not much to be gained from trying to coax or bully them into turning JS on.

[Leva]

I don't worry about it. I figure they may not click on my ads, but they may contribute in other ways -- by posting in forums, telling a friend who DOES have javascript, posting a link, etc.

Leva

[mafew]

What kind of user doesn't have javasript enabled anyways?

The type that are so security conscious that they wouldn't click on ads anyways?

Or the type that are using a restrictive browser on a mobile device that probably couldn't navigate to an ad anyways?

Or the type that are using a browser so ancient that they don't know what the #*$! they're doing anyways?

Or the type that are just way too cool for javascript and probably have an adblocker installed anyways?

[anton23]

Well, where I live some libraries have internet access and javascript disabled. Probably they mean that the internet is there just for serious work and so you don't need javascript.

[dataguy]

There are many scraper-bots which use the standard Moz user agent string. These are often confused for real visitors, and I've never seen one that works with Javascript.

Does anyone here even know anyone who has obeyed CERTs advice and disabled Javascript?

My guess is that the number is less than 1%.

[jetteroheller]

I find the post with the noscript and the explanation how to enable javascript best.

When there would be much more surfers without javascript, I would know a nice handling.

All my site layout is base on <DIV style=top:50;left80...>

Normal, the position:absolut is in the CSS.

But I could set postion:absolut also by javascript.

In this case, all layout elements would run top down the screen in a sequence, no javascript, no layout.