One of the weaknesses that spiders of all kinds suffer from is an inability to process scripts. Adding a small snippet of Javascript in place of an email address effectively renders the address invisible to spiders, while leaving it accessible to your visitors with all but the most primitive web browsers.

In the three examples below, simply substitute your username (the first half of your email address, everything before the @ symbol) and your hostname (everything after the @ symbol). To use the scripts, just insert them into your page's HTML wherever you need them to be displayed.

Example 1:
Creating A Spam-Proof Mailto Link

This snippet of code creates a clickable link that launches the visitor's email application, assuming that their system is configured to work with mailto links. You can replace the link text with your own message, but see example 2 if you want to display your email address as the link text.

<script language=javascript> <!-- var username = "username"; var hostname = "yourdomain.com"; var linktext = "Click Here To Send Me Email"; document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "tox" + username + "@" + hostname + ">" + linktext + "</a>") //--> </script>

Example 2:
A Spam-Proof Mailto Link With
Your Email Address Showing

Some visitors won't be able to use a mailto link, and will instead need to read the email address. No problem, just use the snippet below instead.

<script language=javascript> <!-- var username = "username"; var hostname = "yourdomain.com"; var linktext = username + "@" + hostname; document.write("<a href=" + "mail" + "tox" + username + "@" + hostname + ">" + linktext + "</a>") //--> </script>

Example 3:
Display Your Email Address Without A Mailto Link

Sometimes, you just want to give your email address without making it a clickable link - here's a snippet that accomplishes just that:

<script language=javascript> <!-- var username = "username"; var hostname = "yourdomain.com"; var linktext = username + "@" + hostname; document.write(username + "@" + hostname) //--> </script>

Technique #2:
Hide Behind A Contact Form

Sometimes the sheer volume of email from real visitors can become a burden. In this case, a simple solution is to remove your email address from your site entirely, and use a contact form.

There are dozens of free ASP, Perl, and PHP scripts available online that will allow your users to fill in a form, and send you an email. Many hosting providers offer this service for free to their customers.

A contact form can enable you to deal with a higher volume of mail by allowing you to pre-sort different types of messages. This is easily accomplished by creating a drop-down menu with different options (e.g. customer service, billing, tech support, etc.) that will populate the subject line of the email message.

I hope that this tutorial has given you a clear understanding of how to protect your website, and your email address, from spam-bots. If you have any questions about this article, feel free to contact me through my website. The (spam-proof) email link is at the bottom of my home page, right after the "P.S."

I wish you success...

About the Author: Dan Thies has been helping his clients (and friends) promote their websites since 1996. His latest book, "Search Engine Optimization Fast Start" offers a simple, step by step plan to increase your website's search engine traffic.

Important Notes: There are also other alternative methods to lure the spambots harvester into collecting tens of thousands of totally fake useless email address by wasting its time sending messages to non-existing emails, check it out at: ww.monkeys.com/wpoison/

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