Best Menus to Use for Google Optimization

Are JScript files hurting Google ranking?

[MarcieSz]

We're noticing that some of our clients' web sites are not ranking well on Google. The web sites that are now performing poorly (and were once ranking high) are the sites that have menus operating off of a separate JScript file.

Am I correct in assuming that this is hindering optimization? All of our websites that have stylized text for menus are ranking well, as always.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

[jatar_k]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld MarcieSz,

If you have constructed js links they will not be followed by spiders and may nto even count as links to the other pages. Just stick to text links.

Was this the main change to the sites that are reduced in ranking? I am not saying it is necessarily the reason but it sounds like it is a contributing factor.

[keyplyr]

I use an external JS file that puts a JS drop-down navigation menu on every page. Since the bots do not follow JS, I also text-link a site map to all pages. The site map is a perfect hierarchy of the entire site using full URL text linked key worded titles.

In doing this, I keep the unobtrusive, succinct drop-down navigation while still maintaining the spider food. All 160 pages are indexed with 90% at PR5 or 6.

[caustic]

having your menu in a separate js file is kinda old school. Just have visible divs in the footer, with positioning and invisibility in the css. Then the mouseover event code is only a few lines. Fully spiderable, no js links :)

[t2dman]

I am personally using the css method rather than js on one of the sites I SEO for. However, it does mean that you have every link on every page. Not so good for theming or for concentrating PR onto certain pages. But good for having many text links to many pages (text links good at improving SERP's). At least using the js method with links through to an index page you are keeping page size down and increasing the relevance of the text words you are optimising for. CSS positioning/visibility is also not supported by all browsers. There are other methods out there, some mentioned on webmasterworld.

[MarcieSz]

Thank you for your feedback, your replies have been a big help to us.