Script tags and seo

[madegood]

Hi,

I have a page on my site with a google map embed, and a path drawn on the map. The path is made from a long string of coordinates. For ease I have the co-ordinates placed in a script tag at the foot of the page, amongst my javascript

My question is, will this script tag hurt the seo for the page? I've read that inline js and 'data islands' can be bad, so I've been careful to keep it out of the main body of the page. Thanks, any help appreciated!

[FedeEinhorn]

Inline scripts are bad if you are bringing them on every page, if that's the case, just use scrip embedding so users don't need to download the scripts EVERY time they see a page.

But, if the inline script is used only on a specific page and not reused, then there's no reason to load it as an external file. In my opinion, that will even need an extra server call to bring a code that only works on that page.

Hope that helps!

[madegood]

Thanks Federico.

As my script is being called at the bottom of the page, I would assume it doesn't count as 'inline'?

Yes the scripts are only being used once on specific pages.

[FedeEinhorn]

Yes, that's an inline script (putting it at the top or bottom will still be inline), but as I said, if only one page is using that script, you are good to go. There's nothing bad in using inline scripts if they aren't going to be used on other pages as well.

[madegood]

Okay great, that's very helpful.

What if I wanted to have multiple scripts, say, for points of interest along the route, and had multiple (20+) tags at the bottom of the page? Would this be an ugly way of doing it, or considered totally okay in the eyes of google?

[KristinaKledzik]

Inline scripts aren't bad per se, search engines just can't always understand them. Worst case scenario: you have extra code that Google has to crawl but doesn't understand, which takes up bandwidth and doesn't add value. But, it won't lower your rankings.

So, do whatever you need to do to deliver the best user experience you can on your site with this map and related route, and figure that Google will ignore it (Google is trying to understand it, though, so it may be helpful in the long run). Then, for search engines, include some text content describing the map and the route so that search engines can send the right searchers to your page.

Good luck!

Kristina