SEO - Does google+other search engines index links within <noscript> tags?

Question

I have setup some dropdown menus allowing users to find pages on my website by selecting options across multiple dropdowns:

eg. Color of Car, Year

This would generate a link like: mysite.xyz/blue/2010/

The only problem is, because this link is dynamically assembled with Javascript, I've also had to assemble each possible combination from the dropdowns into a list like:

<noscript>
   No javascript enabled? Here are all the links:
      <a href='mysite.xyz/blue/2009/'>mysite.xyz/blue/2009/</a>
      <a href='mysite.xyz/blue/2010/'>mysite.xyz/blue/2010/</a>
      <a href='mysite.xyz/red/2009/'>mysite.xyz/red/2009/</a>
      <a href='mysite.xyz/red/2010/'>mysite.xyz/red/2010/</a>
</noscript>

My question is, if I put these in a tag like this, will I be penalized or anything by search engines such as Google? I've already been doing so for some navigational stuff which required offsets etc. However, now I would be listing a whole list of links here too. I want to provide them here, moreso so that google can actually index my pages - but for those without javascript, they can still navigate too.

Your thoughts? Also.. even though I have some links that appear to have been indexed, I AM NOT 100% SURE, which is why I'm asking :P

Answer 1

If the noscript code represents an alternative to the javascript code, then it should be fine I think, but Google does try to spot fishy seo and may penalize, so it's better to avoid doing this when possible.

In your case, consider spending some time making a drop down menu such that you can have the links on the page in a list item and use javascript + css to simulate a drop down menu, this way you will not need to use the noscript tag.

Answer 2

A decade ago, I made my website using image links for internal navigation (this at a time when CSS was brand-new and HTML4 Transitional was normal). I then added text navigation links at the bottom of the page.

I believe this (and your idea) is a common enough technique that, as long as you really aren't trying to do something sketchy, Google et al should interpret correctly.