CSS menus bad for SEO?

[davebarnes]

Let's say that I have a website that is all about fruits.
And, let's say that each fruit has its own dedicated page.

If I have a Javascript menu then when the search engine spider visits the banana page it will only see text about bananas. Not mention of any other type of fruit. So, the search engine will index and rank the page high for banana.

If I have a CSS menu then every page has all the fruits on it at least once. Therefore, the banana page has a weaker focus than in the Javascript scenario. True or not true?

Are CSS menus bad for SEO in this case?

[Uncle Dog]

Good point - if the JavaScript menu is not being 'read' by the spider. What if it's a banana spider? I've heard they're very smart and getting smarter. I think you only have a brief window of opportunity in which to take full and fruitful advantage.

[Tubby]

I think - Not true. But I expect to be corrected . .

[webwest]

CSS menus are always better than javascript menus.

[Uncle Dog]

Because you say so? A little more insight please.

[caravan]

My preference is for CSS menus as they allow the bots to freely crawl through a site. Surely a javascript navigation would just create a lot of dead ends?

A CSS menu is also better from an accessibility point of view. Those without javascript enabled won't be able to navigate the site fully.

[inertia]

If I have a CSS menu then every page has all the fruits on it at least once. Therefore, the banana page has a weaker focus than in the Javascript scenario. True or not true?

Not true, at all.

If I have a Javascript menu then when the search engine spider visits the banana page it will only see text about bananas. Not mention of any other type of fruit. So, the search engine will index and rank the page high for banana.

Sorry to be so harsh, but the logic behind the above sentence goes against some basic SEO principles like keyword targeted internal linking, cross content relevance, semantics, hierarchy and structure. Why would the page rank higher if it doesnt mention any other fruit? Arent all fruit topics and keywords related? A page about SEO would benefit from having links with anchor text such as 'internet marketing', 'SEM', 'keyword research' etc so the same applies to pages about fruit.

Also, if you have a JS menu (which can still be crawled by the way, but lets just say it cant for arguments sake) then how are you going to provide the SEs with a site hierarchy and semantic structure? How are you going to provide topical, keyword matched linking between pages? By removing cross page linking you loose the one of the biggest SEO factors, the ability for your website pages to "vote" for each other.

My preference is for CSS menus as they allow the bots to freely crawl through a site. Surely a javascript navigation would just create a lot of dead ends?

A CSS menu is also better from an accessibility point of view. Those without javascript enabled won't be able to navigate the site fully.

Also excellent points.

Some further reading: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/17-ways-s...alue-of-a-link

[iany]

Hi Dave
Nice one!

My take on this is that regardless of which method is used for menu the number of times that "banana" appears will be the same, right? So the other fruits will not dilute that. If I am looking for banana I will find it on the site.

However, the other fruits will be found moe easliy in the CSS version.

I would also go s far as to say that "banana" page has a better chance of being found with the CSS version as the bots will link their way through each page that has the menu on it.

On the other hand if fruit is main reason for going to site - does it matter which menu type is used (heresy, the CSS zealots will cry).



Cheers

Ian

[liquidgraph]

You should be fine. In general, the more interlinked your pages are, the better. Google hands thousands of sites with complex, dynamic navigation systems, so I doubt this will be a problem.

[Canonical]

If you want your navigation links counted then I would certainly avoid using JavaScript to implement them. Implement them with unordered lists and use CSS to style them. While Google is now crawling URLs found in JavaScript and even sometimes executing JavaScript for discovery purposes, I think the jury is still out as to whether those links are 100% for sure counted in their PR and ranking algorithms.

Your navigation menu should be designed for your users IMO. I would worry about trying to PR sculpt or whatever it is you're trying to do using JS. Make your global navigation point to the main sections of the site, use clear text links for them, and let the PR/link juice flow.

I prefer a small global navigation (6-8 links) pointing to the main verticals in my site (Pyramid Themes). And then use an inverted "L" or context sensitive left navigation that links deeper into each vertical. So every page on my site flows juice to the main section pages. And within a section (maybe the vertical about bananas) every banana page links to the main banana subsections.

So when you click on banana in the top navigation you get a left navigation that links to all of the sections under banana (which are about bananas only targeting more specific long tail terms). The left navigation may also link to banana related sub-sections. So your linking structure not only flows PR to the various important pages in the vertical or pyramid theme, but they also flow relevancy since each page's parent is about the same topic, only more general, targeting more general head terms related to the topic. Each page's children are about the same topic only more specific, targeting longer tail terms related to the same topic.