FrontPage Tips by Ward Cameron Enterprises
Take Your Web Site to New Levels

Spider Proof Your Email Links

Are you tired of spam spiders collecting your email addresses from your web pages only to leave you bombarded with unwanted pitches for herbal viagra? You CAN prevent this from happening by replacing your standard email links with a few simple lines of javascript code.

How does this work? When you insert links into your web pages, they are placed into the HTML code using the following syntax:

<a href="mailto:info@website.com">Product Info</a>

This HTML code tells the web page what name to display and what email address to place in your email window. In this case, the words Product Info will appear underlined and the link will open your email window with the address info@website.com already entered.

The problem lies in this standard HTML code. Spammers send out automated programs called spiders that scan the Internet for this HTML code and strip out the email links. These links are added to their spam lists. Before you know it, you are being inundated with spam.

Instead, use the following process to replace your standard links with spider-proof links.

In your FrontPage Normal Window, place the cursor where you would like the link to appear. Then switch to the HTML window and type the following code exactly where your cursor already appears:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">

<!-- Begin 

user = "user";

site = "website.com";

document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '\">');

document.write(user + '@' + site + '</a>');

// End -->

</SCRIPT>

Your email address will now appear as a hyperlink when your web page is viewed online, but it will NOT appear within the source code. This will beat the spam spiders.

Customize the Code

Sometimes you would like a link to appear with custom text such as Product Info. When the link is clicked, it opens a blank email with the appropriate address already loaded. To accomplish this, make a simple change to the above code. Use the following syntax:

<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>

In this case, your link will display the text under the link text, but the target will display the correct email address.

One thing to keep in mind though. If you use this technique, your custom links can appear with any text you wish. This can make screen viewing more convenient, but if you plan on people viewing your page you should use the technique described in the first section. This will make sure that printed pages show the actual email address, not the text name - they won't be able to discern the actual address from the printout.