Member Avatar for MDGM

Hi all,

I'm creating different pages on a website for each branch in the country for a business. The way the user gets to their branch is through a dreamweaver generated jump menu.

My question is: Will search engine robots crawl the pages that are linked via the jump menu?

So for example the page for the London branch can only be navigated to via the jump menu (or typing in the url in the address bar). Will a search engine index this page?

The jump menu script is below:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
function MM_jumpMenuGo(objId,targ,restore){ //v9.0
  var selObj = null;  with (document) { 
  if (getElementById) selObj = getElementById(objId);
  if (selObj) eval(targ+".location='"+selObj.options[selObj.selectedIndex].value+"'");
  if (restore) selObj.selectedIndex=0; }
}
//-->
</script>



        <form id="form">
          <select name="country" id="country" onchange="MM_jumpMenuGo('country','parent',0)">
            <option value="">Choose</option>
            <option value="">======</option>
            <option value="england">England</option>
            <option value="scotland">Scotland</option>
            <option value="wales">Wales</option>
            <option value="northernireland">Northern Ireland</option>
          </select>
          <input type="button" name="go_button" id= "go_button" value="Go" onclick="MM_jumpMenuGo('country','parent',0)" />
        </form>
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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jaspaltech

Dani AI

Generated

A JavaScript-only jump menu that navigates on an onchange event (the Dreamweaver select → parent.location pattern shown above) is not a reliable discovery route for search engines. Modern crawlers like Googlebot do execute JavaScript with an evergreen Chromium renderer, but Google explicitly extracts and follows traditional HTML links (anchor elements with an href). Navigation that requires a user action (selecting an option or clicking a JS-only button) therefore may not be found or indexed reliably. (developers.google.com)

The pragmatic fixes suggested by are correct and practical. Make sure each branch has a stable, canonical URL (for example /branches/london/), expose those URLs as plain anchor links somewhere crawlable (footer, site-map page, or a dedicated HTML sitemap), and publish an XML sitemap that lists every branch page so search engines can discover them directly. An HTML fallback can be tiny and effective:

<ul>
  <li><a href="/branches/london/">London</a></li>
  <li><a href="/branches/edinburgh/">Edinburgh</a></li>
  <li><a href="/branches/cardiff/">Cardiff</a></li>
</ul>

Also consider rendering strategy: for sites that rely heavily on client-side rendering, server-side rendering (SSR), static generation (SSG), or hydration are the more robust long‑term solutions. Dynamic rendering (serving pre-rendered HTML to bots) is a possible workaround but is explicitly described as a temporary approach by Google; Bing likewise notes crawler limits and historically recommended pre-rendering for heavy JS sites. Plan for SSR/SSG when feasible. (developers.google.com)

Verification and troubleshooting steps: submit the sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, then use Search Console’s URL Inspection or the Rich Results Test to view the rendered DOM and check for JavaScript errors; request indexing for high-priority branch URLs if they look correct. Also scan server logs for Googlebot/Bingbot requests and use a quick site:yourdomain.com query to confirm indexed pages. These checks confirm whether the sitemap/links are actually being seen and queued for rendering. (developers.google.com)

In short: exposing branch pages as real URLs and as plain anchor links (or in an XML sitemap) is the fastest, most reliable way to get them indexed; automating sitemap/link generation from the same source that builds the jump menu keeps everything in sync (a good follow-up to ’s sitemap plan).

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for Airshow

Max,

That's a good question. I have always assumed NO, search engines will not penetrate javascript orchestrated hyperlinks. However, there's no particular reason why a smart search engine should not do so. But my best guess remains that most search engines will not.

A workaround would be to include standard html hyperlinks in addition to your jump menu. You could do this on the/each page (eg in a footer) or (probably better) in a "Site Map" page linked eg. from your site's main nav bar.

With a little imagination, you could automate the construction of both jump menu(s) and the corresponding section of the site map by writing either functions or a class that draws on the same "database" of urls (could be simply hard coded). This would ensure that the site map is always up to date with changes to your jump menu(s).

Airshow

Edited by Airshow because: n/a
Member Avatar for MDGM

thanks for the reply and advice airshow. I had thought of having the drop down menu's automated using a database but by the time i had got to the branch page, the unique content for each page would be too detailed (with html codes and so on) to be stored in a database. Little changes will be made to the pages once they have been created anyway so I concluded it would be easiest to just do it all manually.

As for making my links search engine friendly, I will use the site map solution and consider adding text links to the pages as well underneath (also good for people with javascript turned off).

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

Member Avatar for jaspaltech

sir i have a problem with select box,
Q1. I have two option in one select box sell and rent then we select the sell then 23 field will show and then rent selected then some field is remove by selection then how should i use the validation in this functionality .

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