Javascript Pop-ups and Search Engine

Do they get listed

[stuart]

Hi all. Does anyone know if a javascript:openPopWin()pop-up gets listed in SE's. I use them to display a bigger picture of thumbnails but am wondering if its better to put the description on the pop-up also or make the pop-up a whole page.

[drbill]

Stuart, I have never had one listed in the engines and I use them all the time :)

"May all your hits be sales"

[tedster]

Spiders do not currently follow a link which is only a javascript function. The only way I know to get a popup page listed on the SEs is to provide at least one regular HTML link to that page, and optimally several links. It is a creative affair to design those links so that spiders follow them but most visitors to the main site do not.

I have just recently begun to use this technique with some smaller sites. I design the page so that the popup window only allows the enlarged image to be visible and the window is not scrollable. However the visitor who comes directly to the URL from a search engine will see a full "proper" page, complete with links back into the main site.

Pop-up pages can offer a good opportunity for SEO, especially on sites with low total page count or text-poor pages. For instance, I have several artists who want essentially non-verbal sites. Each optimized popup page can become a well focused doorway/hallway page.

I've only done a little bit of this to date, but so far the results are very promising.

[stuart]

Thank you very much (yet again!), sounds promising. I have about 2000 of these pop-ups just for larger images, they work so well but if I was to make them whole html pages also with the descriptions from the thumbnails (10-30 words each) do you think I could expect ALOT more SE traffic (Gods knows I need it!) due to more pages and a better keyword percentage than the thumbnails x10 pages ? TIA again.

[tedster]

I use these popup/doorways for highly targeted search phrases, looking for quality visits over quantity. For instance, on a gallery site I might optimize for the particular artist's name and even specific works if they are relatively well known in their field.

You certainly could optimize for more basic keywords. By doing this you're adding to total page count for the site, giving the SEs more on-theme text and more in-site links. All that can really boost rank and traffic.

One thing though - cranking through the production of 2000 pages might lead you to fall into lots of repetition, and you'll have what looks like duplicate content to the search engines. That can hurt. (I've done this!)

You might want to start with pop-up pages that offer an opportunity for the best, most on theme, subject matter. In other words, see what you can achieve on a smaller scale first instead of doing all 2000 pages and then having to make massive changes.

[Hunter]

Tedster...bravo on another very informative post :)

[stuart]

Thank you all very much. Tedster, you have given me so much great advice over the past 5 months, I really appreciate that and it won't be forgotten.