Are the menus created by Locu crawlable?

[onurkiyak]

As many of you might now, Locu is a company that allows restaurant owners to manage and post their menus on multiple websites. Their service is pretty slick, but is does raise the issue of whether their menus are crawlable or not.

You can see an example here: http://thequarternyc.com/menus.html. The menus are embedded into the website using a simple script:

Using Google Fetch, it doesn't look like there's any content to crawl, but Locu claims that the content IS crawlable.

I would love to get some other opinions on this question.

Thanks!

[GeorgeDavis]

Googlebot can crawl javascript (which is how Locu displays text) but it's not a guarantee.  If it's an option I would stick with HTML.  There was a great case study done on YOUmoz awhile back on this : Can Google Really Access Content in JavaScript? Really?

[sprynewmedia]

If they claim it, ask them to back it up with a real example or two.  Then copy what they did (ie noscript link perhaps?)

[onurkiyak]

This is what they responded with:

**Examples of working Search Quotes: **-- Vadouvan spiced squash seeds (1st hit)-- Mahogany Style Catfish Fillet (2nd hit )

Their menus do indeed show up, and the script is the same as in my previous example:

and

Is this proof enough?

[sprynewmedia]

Could be.  They could also be linked to on those phrases from other sites.

So I tested a different string from both menus:

"goat bucheret, carmody, dry aged jack, pt." -> success

and

"Satur Farms Green Salad" -> success

Perhaps you can confirm with your own test but it appears the claim is true.

However as a back up, it couldn't hurt to include no-script content since that's literally the purpose of the tag.  Just remember to maintain the content.

[sprynewmedia]

Out of interest, I tried Bing and the searches failed.

One more reason to add a plain text version in the noscript tag.