# Search Engine / No JavaScript version missing links
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [November 10, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027 "2014-11-10T21:59:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/1 "2014-11-10T21:59:21Z")
When browsing a discourse site ([meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org)) without JavaScript in the same way as it is presented to `Googlebot` several links are missing.
1. Links to user profiles
2. Link to categories list from homepage
3. Links to users activity from users page
4. Links to related topics at the bottom of a topic.
5. Any actual activity on users activity/topics page: [Profile - sam - Discourse Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/users/sam/activity/topics) (yes this looks the same as the users page because it is, no different content.)
EDIT: The idea being if a user would find it hard to navigate to / see related interesting info - so would a search engine.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/2 "2014-11-10T22:05:45Z")
> [@DeanMarkTaylor](#):
>
> related topics
that is just a random walk, I don’t see this as providing any value unless they are really related.
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### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/3 "2014-11-10T22:10:49Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> that is just a random walk
OK if it is just random - then ignore that point. I was imagining the topics where actually related i.e. StackOverflow style:
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/4 "2014-11-10T22:12:20Z")
re #1
IMHO the links to member Profiles should NOT be there for search engines to find or follow, at least not until this happens.
> [@Only allow user profiles for TL1 and above?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/only-allow-user-profiles-for-tl1-and-above/21436):
>
> It would be useful to require a user to have at least Trust Level 1 before being able to post a profile. At the moment, we are getting quite a few (possibly bot) accounts posting spammy profiles upon registration. Granted, they probably won’t be indexed, but it would be nice to thwart bots/spammers from registering just for this purpose. Is this a possibility?
There is enough of a problem with fly-by Profile SPAMmers already.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/5 "2014-11-10T22:16:27Z")
We should include incoming links, cause they are not in the body of posts.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/6 "2014-11-10T23:11:36Z")
Irrelevant. Check robots.txt, user profiles are not allowed to be indexed anyway.
This also addresses your points #1, #3, and #5@DeanMarkTaylor.
Suggested topics is indeed random once you’ve iterated through all the stuff that requires a user login, such as “is this new?” and “am I tracking this?”. So that rules #4 out as well.
I don’t think any of the links mentioned need to appear in the JS-off page.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/7 "2014-11-10T23:31:27Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> user profiles are not allowed to be indexed anyway.
Sorry, but you seem to be confusing “allowed” with “suggested” i.e.
> **[The Web Robots Pages](http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html)**
> There are two important considerations when using /robots.txt:
> ```
> robots can ignore your /robots.txt. Especially malware robots that scan the web for security vulnerabilities, and email address harvesters used by spammers will pay no attention.
>
> ```
> ```
> the /robots.txt file is a publicly available file. Anyone can see what sections of your server you don't want robots to use.
>
> ```
> So don’t try to use /robots.txt to hide information.
So though Google may not ignore the suggestion, other bots will, and robots.txt alone will not be enough to deter Profile SPAMners as indeed it hasn’t yet.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/8 "2014-11-10T23:35:46Z")
Google is 94.3% of all incoming traffic at Stack Overflow, for example. That’s not an exaggeration, [those are the actual numbers](http://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-elephant-in-the-room-google-monoculture/218/203?u=codinghorror).
These “other bots” are irrelevant.
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:32am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/search-engine-no-javascript-version-missing-links/22027/9 "2025-12-04T11:32:49Z")