I am sure you have come across web sites that featured a map of, say, the United States, where if you clicked on a state, you were taken directly to that state’s web page. More likely than not, this clickable image map was created using the MAP and the AREA elements.
From users point of view, this is great as it helps them to navigate your site in a more natural (visual) way. But, are image maps good also from the search engine optimization point of view? The answer is, “not really.” The main problem with image maps is that — while they do pass PageRank — they do not pass link reputation. Moreover, image maps cannot be “nofollow”-ed.
So, how do you allow your visitors to benefit from image maps without sacrificing your PR push strategy or diluting your link reputation? By using something called the Document Object Modification (DOM). DOM will make the image map links invisible to the search engines. Yet, it will have no effect on your site’s usability.
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