Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Sam Stinso on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 09/24/2014).

Using JS to manipulate outbound links; Is it SEO safe?

Can anyone please comment on the new traffic building web app linksed. com? It uses JS to manipulate outbound links.

Is it SEO safe? I saw its implementation on aha-now. com.?
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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Sam Stinson: Can anyone please comment on the new traffic building web app linksed. com? It uses JS to manipulate outbound links.

    Is it SEO safe? I saw its implementation on aha-now. com.
  • Edwin Jonk: I don't think many webmasters will like this app. That is, instead of sending the traffic to the site, it will be iframed on a sub-domain of linksed(dot)com. If the web page that is being framed is using SAME ORIGIN [1] this app will be broken. Therefore it may not be that user friendly.

    [1] ;https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/X-Frame-Options
  • Sam Stinson: Thanks +Edwin Jonk ;What about impact on SEO? Is it violating Google guidelines?
  • Edwin Jonk: I don't think there will be an impact on SEO. Let me ping the link-builder-master +Rob Wagner ;...
  • Rob Wagner: The issue that could cause a problem is in the redirect to a sub-domain on ;linksed. If the crawler is being served something different than a visitor that could be a red flag. Not sure if this does that however, when someone clicks on a link it is not taking the visitor to the linked website. ;

    Truthfully I have never used anything like this so I don't want to give any bad advice. My personal opinion is that it may get you some visitors back to your site but the user experience is really poor. I would not use it but that's just my opinion, others may feel differently. ;

    I would read the guidelines closely. ;
     ;https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2721217?hl=en

    "some redirects deceive search engines or display content to human users that is different than that made available to crawlers. It's a violation of Google Webmaster Guidelines to redirect a user to a different page with the intent to display content other than what was made available to the search engine crawler."

    "Using JavaScript to redirect users can be a legitimate practice. For example, if you redirect users to an internal page once they’re logged in, you can use JavaScript to do so. When examining JavaScript or other redirect methods to ensure your site adheres to our guidelines, consider the intent."
  • Sam Stinson: Thank you ;+RobWagner for the honest opinion. ;

    Is there a way to get it 100% confirmed from Google about the legitimacy / illegitimacy of this tool?

    On linksed FAQs it is written "Linksed uses Canonical URLs to let search engines know that the original external target webpage is the 'Official URL' of the external link."

    This means that search engines might be able to follow Linksed-links (like human visitors.)
  • Jim Munro: Hi Sam,  ;please modify both links above so that they are disabled.
  • Sam Stinson: done
  • Edwin Jonk: +Sam Stinson ;thank you

View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 09/24/2014).