Advanced Topics
Protect "mailto:" Tags from Spam
Spam bots, spiders, and crawlers search the internet for "mailto:" tags. The following script can help protect your "mailto:" tags.
- Copy and insert the following JavaScript into your HTML source code at the mailto: insertion point.
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!-- Begin
user = "myusername";
site = "myhost.com";
document.write('<a href=\"mailto:' + user + '@' + site + '\">');
document.write('Email Our Department' + '</a>');
// End -->
</SCRIPT> - Edit the script to include the user name and mail host.
For example, if the email will be sent to YourAndrewID@andrew.cmu.edu,
in the script, change these lines:
user = "myusername";
site = "myhost.com";
to these lines:
user = "YourAndrewID";
site = "andrew.cmu.edu"; - Save your HTML file. The JavaScript will generate a clickable link that reads "Email Our Department."
Note: Some HTML authoring tools require you to use an automated tool for inserting JavaScript (e.g., Insert > Script Object in Dreamweaver).
Spam-Resistant Email Address List
If you maintain an email list web page, restrict it to one web page, if possible. To make that page spam-resistant, add the following line to your HTML code. Compliant search engine bots, spambots, spiders, and Web crawlers ignore pages with this tag:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />