Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
CSS vs Javascript vs JQuery drop down navigation
-
For a user / seo perspective, what is the best way to code a drop down menu nav bar? Is it best to use css, javascript or a scripting library like jquery?
I am thinking about overall best practice that will not have a negative impact on serps.
I am also thinking about what will work best on all types of devices i.e. desk tops, lap tops, smart phones and tablets.
What are the Pro's & Cons of Using CSS for Drop Down Menus.
What are the Pro's & cons of using Javascript for drop down menus.
And the same question for jquery.
Thank you all in advance for your ideas.
-
You can't go wrong with CSS. Endless styling possibilities. Also, I'd stay away from javascript because it's executed in order on the page. Meaning, if the JS doesn't load properly in the menu, the remaining JS below it wont load either.
-
Thumbs up to you too Joel and good luck with your project.
-
Seems like the seo jury has spoken and CSS it is. Thank you all for your help on this matter. Thumbs up to you all.
-
Hands down that CSS is the preferred way make dropdown menus. Google and on a lesser note, other search engines, have improved drastically with their ability to parse JavaScript / jQuery, and you may be able to get away with it, but it really should be avoided if possible. With the "new" CSS3 styles, you get almost any style you'd like with that.
-
Hi Joel,
I echo Marek's comments. However, I'm a great fan of making 100% sure that the bots can access everything that I want them to so if I'm ever in doubt I go with css and html combination as much as possible. We use Ajax and jQuery totally etc only on pages which we believe are 100% to be used primarily for user experience and engagement. E.g. When they're doing searches for specific things and the page needs to be ultra fast and efficient. However, we also try to ensure that we have crawlable pages which output the full content of a search wherever possible so that we can get the SEO benefit too. It also helps for when people have javascript disabled (not many granted).
I've seen so many ecommerce sites with great content but it's often got some kind of blockage that means a button has to be pressed or a form submitted to see it and if I'm not mistaken bots can't access this easily.
Hope this helps.
-
Hi Joel,
In my opinion CSS is "The Best". Simple, easy usage, easy changes, very good speed of page load ... etc...
As I red on many forums on the internet JQuery and JS are are available for robots, so there are no contraindications to employ them.
But
CSS - better code/text ratio (no long scripts in page code)
CSS - simple usage and changes (CSS3, HTML5)
CSS - faster loading (only simple text and html)
In my opinion, now when we have HTML5 and CSS3 there is no better way - it's innovative and simple solution,
Marek
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to fix non-crawlable pages affected by CSS modals?
I stumbled across something new when doing a site audit in SEMRUSH today ---> Modals. The case: Several pages could not be crawled because of (modal:) in the URL. What I know: "A modal is a dialog box/popup window that is displayed on top of the current page" based on CSS and JS. What I don't know: How to prevent crawlers from finding them.
Web Design | | Dan-Louis0 -
Using Button Links vs Sidebar Menu
I have a services page with a lot of rich text and a slideshow of images. Currently, I am using a column of buttons to various services, and am wondering if a sidebar menu would be more effective for Google to crawl and rank?
Web Design | | cinchmedia0 -
Drop Down Menus and Crawlability
Hello, We are working on a complete site redesign. One of the mock-ups that are being reviewed is of a page that encompasses and entire category of products, but the only way the user can see the products is to fill out several drop down menus, and then a subset of products that match that criteria will appear. Once that list appears, the user will then be able to click on each of the products and will then be taken to the product page. I'm concerned that this layout will pose a crawlability issue since click activity and drop down menus have always been a problem for bots in the past, has anything changed? Will the bot be able to follow the links to these product pages if it can't see them since it can't fill out the form? Also, depending on the functionality of this 'form', I'm assuming the product listing will be populated dynamically and pulled from another source, which means that the product links will not live in the html of the page, and hence cannot be crawled. Does anyone know how this is normally handled? Do the actual results usually live elsewhere or does it live in the html of that page? Any thoughts or clarity around this would be appreciated.
Web Design | | Colbys0 -
Does having a Blog link in the top level navigation provide any better SEO value, or would having it in a footer or top navigation work just as good?
Trying to decide on whether placing a link to the blog in our top level navigation would have a better SEO value than just placing it in top or footer navigation. I have an ecommerce site.
Web Design | | RPD0 -
Infinite Scrolling vs. Pagination on an eCommerce Site
My company is looking at replacing our ecommerce site's paginated browsing with a Javascript infinite scroll function for when customers view internal search results--and possibly when they browse product categories also. Because our internal linking structure isn't very robust, I'm concerned that removing the pagination will make it harder to get the individual product pages to rank in the SERPs. We have over 5,000 products, and most of them are internally linked to from the browsing results pages in the category structure: e.g. Blue Widgets, Widgets Under $250, etc. I'm not too worried about removing pagination from the internal search results pages, but I'm concerned that doing the same for these category pages will result in de-linking the thousands of product pages that show up later in the browsing results and therefore won't be crawlable as internal links by the Googlebot. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do here? I'm already arguing against the infinite scroll, but we're a fairly design-driven company and any ammunition or alternatives would really help. For example, would serving a different page to the Googlebot in this case be a dangerous form of cloaking? (If the only difference is the presence of the pagination links.) Or is there any way to make rel=next and rel=prev tags work with infinite scrolling?
Web Design | | DownPour0 -
Landing pages vs internal pages.
Hey everyone I have run into a problem and would greatly appreciate anyone that could weigh in on it. I have a web client that went to an outside vendor for marketing. The client asked me to help them target some keywords and since I am new to the SEO world I have proceeded by researching the best keywords for the client. I found 6 that see excellent monthly searches. I then registered the .com and or .net domain names that match these words. I then started building landing pages that make reference to the keyword and then have links to his site to get more info. My customer sent the first of these sites to the marketer and he says I am doing things all wrong. He says rather then having landing pages like this I should just point the domain names at internal pages to the website. He also says that I should not have different looks for the landing pages from the main site and that I should have the full site menu on each landing page. I wanted to here what everyone here has to say about the pros and cons of the way to do this cause the guy giving the advice to me has a lower ranking site then I do and I have only started working on getting my site ranked this year. He has atleast according to him been doing this forever. Thanks, Ron
Web Design | | bsofttech0 -
Flat vs. Silo Site Architecture, What's Better
I'm in the midst of converting a fairly large website (500+ pages) into WordPress as a content management system. I know that there are two schools of thought regarding site architecture: Those who believe that everything should be categorized, I.E.- website.com/shoes/reebok/running People who believe that the less clicks it takes from the homepage the better. As it stands, our current site has a completely flat architecture, with landing pages being added randomly to the root, I.E.- website.com/affordable-shoes-in-louisville-ky I'm beginning to think that there is a gray area with this. I spoke to someone who says that you should never have a page more than 2 categories/subfolders deep. But if we plan on adding a lot of content doesn't it make sense to set the site up into many categories so we can set a good foundation for adding massive amounts of content. Also, will 301 redirecting to the new structure cause us to lose rankings for certain terms? Any help here is appreciated.
Web Design | | C-Style0 -
Drop Down Menus & SEO?
Do these typically have a negative impact on SEO? I know this is kind of a vague question, does it make it harder to spider? Are there SEO friendly ways of coding these? There are so many sites out there that have these, so I've got to assume it's different on a case by case basis.
Web Design | | MichaelWeisbaum0