Using buttons on web pages. Will Google index their links?

Question

I want to use the look of standard buttons on my page, but I want web crawlers to follow them as if they were links.

Will Google and other web-crawlers index a web page that has links that look like this?

<form method="get" action="/mylink.html"><input style="font-size:10pt" id="my-link" type="submit" value="Learn More..." /></form>

If not, is there another way to use standard buttons?

Answer 1

You can always use an <a> tag and then style it to look like a button. This requires a bit more work though.

In my opinion, when you present navigation options through buttons you run the risk of confusing users. Users associate clicking a button with performing a task with side-effects. Users also expect links to take them directly to content without modifying anything. Here's an article that supports my argument.

Edit:

Here's a better example of styling a link:

<style>
.NavLink {  
 padding:5px;
 background-color:#333333;
 color:#FFFFFF;
 font-weight:bold;
 font-size:16px;
}
</style>
<a class="NavLink">Nav Text</a>

Answer 2

Googlebot does follow forms, but I wouldn't count on it.

Also using buttons for links is generally not a good idea, as pointed out by Dave.