skip nav link being indexed by google

#1

My skip navigation link, which should be hidden from normal browsers,
but displayed by screen readers, are being indexed by google.

The skip nav link is designed to improve the accessibility of my site,
but to my customer google listings are more important.

The following is the description for my site that turns up on google:

Rayman: DS. ... Skip to content.....

Here is the html for the skip navigation link:

<body>

<a href="#content" class="hide" accesskey="2">Skip to content</a>

As you can see it's at the top of the page body, so google thinks it's
important. It's hidden using display:none and I'm aware that this isn't
the best way to do that as screen readers also ignore it, but the
alternatives don't get around the problem with google.

How can I hide my skip nav link from users of internet explorer,
mozilla etc., and from google, but display it to screen readers?

Any hints would be gratefully received.

#2

I'm not entirely sure what 'screen scrapers' are. I just mean screen
readers like Jaws, which blind people use to access websites. They are
generally based on a standard web browser.

#3

Olly wrote:

Quote:

How can I hide my skip nav link from users of internet explorer,
mozilla etc., and from google, but display it to screen readers?

Cloaking should do it.

BTW did you try a Description Metatag?

----------------------
http://www.abcseo.com/

#4

"Olly" <osecluna (AT) yahoo (DOT) co.uk> wrote in
news:1116251401.115866.318020 (AT) g14g2000cwa (DOT) googlegroups.com:

Quote:

My skip navigation link, which should be hidden from normal browsers,
but displayed by screen readers, are being indexed by google.

The skip nav link is designed to improve the accessibility of my site,
but to my customer google listings are more important.

The following is the description for my site that turns up on google:

Rayman: DS. ... Skip to content.....

Here is the html for the skip navigation link:

body

a href="#content" class="hide" accesskey="2">Skip to content</a

As you can see it's at the top of the page body, so google thinks it's
important. It's hidden using display:none and I'm aware that this
isn't the best way to do that as screen readers also ignore it, but
the alternatives don't get around the problem with google.

How can I hide my skip nav link from users of internet explorer,
mozilla etc., and from google, but display it to screen readers?

Do you have a meta description tag of a reasonable length and a DMoz
listing?

One or the other is currently likely to be used instead of a page
snippet for most things, so that will help.

If Google insists on using a page snippet, can you give it content
elsewhere which makes more attractive snippage? For example, could you
put the unique heading for each page (which is unique so therefore
should not need to be skipped) before the skip link in the code?

For example, on the Virgin Megastores site
(http://www.virginmegastores.co.uk/invt/627969) there is a skip to
content link, but it's not being displayed if you
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=rayman+ds+virgin

because there is more relevant content elsewhere on the page - Google is
using that instead

They could probably help this further by providing a longer meta
description tag.

(I don't know if this is the site you mean and it doesn't matter - I'm
using it as an example I found by googling 'Rayman ds "skip to
content"')

Victoria
--
Clare Associates Ltd
http://www.clareassoc.co.uk/
--

#5

Olly wrote:

Quote:

a href="#content" class="hide" accesskey="2">Skip to content</a

As you can see it's at the top of the page body, so google thinks it's
important.

Nah, Google puts it in the snippet because it couldn't find anything
relevant for the given query (or Skip to content is considered context for
the result). If you provide a meta description tag the problem might go
away.

--
John Perl SEO tools: http://johnbokma.com/perl/
Experienced (web) developer: http://castleamber.com/
Get a SEO report of your site for just 100 USD:
http://johnbokma.com/websitedesign/seo-expert-help.html

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skip nav link being indexed by google

Search Engine Optimization Discussion about SEO/Search Engine Optimization (alt.internet.search-engines)

skip nav link being indexed by google - 05-16-2005 , 09:50 AM

Re: skip nav link being indexed by google - 05-16-2005 , 01:25 PM

Re: skip nav link being indexed by google - 05-16-2005 , 05:53 PM

Re: skip nav link being indexed by google - 05-18-2005 , 06:48 AM

Re: skip nav link being indexed by google - 05-18-2005 , 07:46 AM