Copy the URL of this page and submit it to Search Engine Spider Simulator. You will notice that even though the following links for Style 1, Style 2 and Style 3 aren’t clickable they can be spidered by search engines.

<a xhref="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" mce_href="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" onClick="setActiveStyleSheet(Style 1); return false;">Style 1</a>
<a xhref="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" mce_href="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" onClick="setActiveStyleSheet(Style 2); return false;">Style 2</a>
<a xhref="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" mce_href="http://www.shrutigupta.com/#" onClick="setActiveStyleSheet(Style 3); return false;">Style 3</a>

I find that weird. I have inserted the above links between <code> HTML tags. Also, I tried putting the code inside a text area in a form. No success! Hence, I have added “#” after href to avoid the spiders trying to access a page that doesn’t exist.

Lesson learnt: Whenever we add unclickable links in a web page, verify that these links cannot be spidered at Search Engine Spider Simulator. And, if it can be spidered at least it should not be trying to go to a page that doesn’t exist. This is because it can negatively impact the position of a website in search engines. After all, a broken link on a website is not going to impress the spiders!

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