Java Script and Menus

[waqid]

I have a client who wants to create drop down menus on their E commerce Site. Currently they do not have any.

If we create drop down menus I am afraid we will loose too much category and product page power.  However these drop downs would be good for the user. To accomplish this drop down menu without negative SEO side effects I had an idea.

Create a javascript menu.

Google's spiders do not read javascript correct? This would bypass any negative effect of having an HTML menu correct?

[mihaiaperghis]

Hey Waqid,

You could create a javascript menu, just be careful that Google can access certain javascript.

Alternatively, you could just nofollow the new links so they don't dilute the other links present on the page.

Or, you could just leave it like that. Google does know how to separate elements present on every page (like navigation) to the actual content of the page, like the product information.

Hope this helps, cheers!

[waqid]

From what I understand using the no follows would be page sculpting and also a no follow attribute is used at Google's discretion?

[mihaiaperghis]

It is, but then again, that is what you're trying to do, whether it's through JS or the nofollow attribute.

Matt Cutts recommends letting PageRank flow freely around the website, and only nofollow links that don't make sense for the search engine to crawl, like a login page or the shopping cart. I would go with that since, as Eric Enge points out, they probably filter stuff like navigation and footer links anyway.