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<noscript>
Published: June 19, 2005
I've been looking at the <noscript> tag for a while now as a means of optimising sites low on visible content. In the town of Hastings and the surrounding areas, we have a wide variety of artists, illustrators and designers who are increasingly looking to the web as a means of displaying their portfolio.
The problem is, as always, search engines love text and artists love images. Getting the two to meet halfway has always posed a few problems but it seems there is an elegant and simple solution to this.
I have run a test at the TN38 Labs and found that the <noscript> tag offers a way of feeding the search engines while hiding the information from the majority of visitors.
Test Page: http://labs.tn38.net/google_noscript/
- Google: "does google read noscript" - Result: Page 1
I filled out the only possible area an image only site could be optimised, the <TITLE> tag, but as usual I left <META> alone.
Checking the link above shows a great result for a page just published and linked to from the front page of this blog. Look at the source code and you can see that it is well structured and free from spammy keywords.
Does Google read <noscript>?
Yes, it most certainly does and it will rank according to the normal Google criteria such as good quality content and good quality links.
So there you have it. If you have a Flash or image only (not recommended) website, use <noscript> to write good copy and get your website ranked.
Alternatives to <noscript>
You could use display:none; but CSS is less well supported than <noscript>. What did surprise me is the fact that Google still ranked the test page quite well even when <script> wasn't present. Something that, to me, would trigger the spam alarm bells ringing.
Well, for now, it works. As always, I'll keep you posted if things change :)
Update
After rendering the image using JavaScript and giving Google some time to digest the changes, rank hasn't changed. I guess, as most know by now, that Google relies less on content and more on the backlinks. Not a surprise though.
Useful?
Assistance?
Comments
robmiller says:
robmiller says:
I'd imagine there's a healthy turnaround of people by now...
And yet it's oh so similar :p
Oh Spinner, where for art thou auf die OcUK? :(