Spider / index proof email link
Hi gang,
I was hoping some of the experts here would be willing to share some techniques for posting legible email links which can't be indexed / harvested by spam bot spiders and the like.
I found one technique, as follows:
<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!-- Begin
user = "info";
site = "website.com";
link = "Product Info";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '\">');
document.write(link + '</a>');
// End -->
</script> Is this a good technique? Does it work? Any other suggestions?
I'm thinking being that this is a script, many FireFox clients won't display it at all.
Thanks very much.
baldrick posted this at 18:12 — 21st September 2005.
He has: 388 posts
Joined: Apr 2005
If you have access to any serverside languages you might consider using a contact form.
chrishirst posted this at 18:41 — 21st September 2005.
He has: 379 posts
Joined: Apr 2005
Couple of ideas here Hide email address
I haven't done the PHP version as yet.
rehash posted this at 19:01 — 21st September 2005.
They have: 15 posts
Joined: Sep 2005
the best way is to make an image where to show the email address, or just generate an image from php/asp
AyntRyte posted this at 15:54 — 24th September 2005.
He has: 145 posts
Joined: Jun 2004
I use this tool. It unicodes everything from mailto: to the link text.
Busy posted this at 22:55 — 24th September 2005.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
image (no alt tag) or server side form is the ONLY way that works - bad bots/spiders are the same breed as search engine bots/spiders, they read the output as well as the source in most cases
AyntRyte posted this at 05:41 — 25th September 2005.
He has: 145 posts
Joined: Jun 2004
You may be right, but I've been using full unicode in mailto's for about 3 years and have minimal spam due only to others not protecting my address. And (following your hypothesis) a Google search for my email address does not return any pages I have published which include my mailto.
\\// Robert
The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's because they use more manure.
Busy posted this at 11:08 — 25th September 2005.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
Is easy to test, get yourself a throw away hotmail account and on a popular site (your own) add the javascript snipet mentioned in the first post (with your new hotmail address), but make a slight change to the above snipet, add to the document write tags (so as it only displays in the source).
don't use the address for anything else.
If you use an htacess file to block bots don't waste your time with this experiment.
It will take a wee while to be found, but you will be found and spammed before to long.
Adding this to a contact page would be found before most others, index and contact are main targets
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