Menu
I have been using a noscript tag to show a warning when users have JavaScript disabled or are using script blocking plugins like Noscript. The website will not function properly if JavaScript is disabled and users may not figure out why it is not working without the warning.
After the latest Google algorithm shuffle, I have seen the daily traffic drop to about 1/3 of what it was in the previous months. I have also seen pages that were ranking #1 or #2 in the SERPS drop out of the results. After doing some investigating in webmaster tools, I noticed that "JavaScript" is listed as #16 in the keywords section. This makes no sense because the site has nothing to do with JavaScript and the only place that word appears is in the text between the noscript tags.
It seems that Google is now including and indexing the content between the noscript tags. I don't believe that this was happening before. The warning is three sentences. I'd imagine that having the same three sentences appearing at the top of every single page on the site could have a damaging effect on the SEO.
Do you think this could be causing a problem with SEO? And, is there any other method to provide a warning to users who have JavaScript disabled in a way that won't be indexed or read by search engines?
563
Anything within < noscript>< /noscript> tags will render only when JavaScript is disabled . Users might disable JavaScript for a number of reasons. A handful of people even install browser extensions like NoScript to prevent the browser from running JavaScript.
As stated by Maile Ohye, a former Google support engineer, Google analyzes the content of noscript tags. However, they should accurately reflect the content of JS scripts, otherwise, the bot may perceive them as cloaking.
You need it only if you plan to track users who have JavaScript disabled or if you want to verify your Search Console property. For Search Console verification to work it is crucial to have the noscript part placed RIGHT AFTER the opening <body> tag of your website.
Definition and Usage The <noscript> tag defines an alternate content to be displayed to users that have disabled scripts in their browser or have a browser that doesn't support script.
Put the <noscript> content at the end of your HTML, and then use CSS to position it at the top of the browser window. Google will no longer consider it important.
Stack Overflow itself uses this technique - do a View Source on this page and you'll see a "works best with JavaScript" warning near the end of the HTML, which appears at the top of the page when you switch off JavaScript.
148
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With
