JS jump menu location indexing on search engines

[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>

[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

[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.

[Airshow]

No probs.

Good luck

Airshow

[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 .