Hiding text and content from search engines

For general web development questions that are not specifically related to CSS HTML Validator. This includes (but is not limited to) general HTML, CSS, Accessibility, JavaScript, and SEO questions.
User avatar
Albert Wiersch
Site Admin
Posts: 3785
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:23 am
Location: Near Dallas, TX

Hiding text and content from search engines

Post by Albert Wiersch »

I've just added a new SEO message to CSE HTML Validator when "display: none" or "visibility: hidden" is used:
Using "display: none" or "visibility: hidden" to hide text may be considered spamming and "black hat SEO". Be sure not to purposely use this technique to hide text and content for search engine purposes.

Here is an article related to the topic:
http://searchengineland.com/is-hiding-c ... -seo-13643

So this is another "black hat SEO" technique to avoid... but if using it legitimately it may be OK (hopefully).
Albert Wiersch, CSS HTML Validator Developer • Download CSS HTML Validator FREE Trial
rag_gupta
Rank II - Novice
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:17 pm

Re: Hiding text and content from search engines

Post by rag_gupta »

Can you tell if I move a div with left margin of -5000px so that it disappears from the screen then will it be a black hat seo technique?
User avatar
Albert Wiersch
Site Admin
Posts: 3785
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:23 am
Location: Near Dallas, TX

Re: Hiding text and content from search engines

Post by Albert Wiersch »

rag_gupta wrote:Can you tell if I move a div with left margin of -5000px so that it disappears from the screen then will it be a black hat seo technique?
Personally, I'd consider hiding text to be "black hat" but I'm not sure how much harm, if any it would do. Plus, I suspect it wouldn't do that much good either... but these are just my thoughts.

I did find this interesting link:
http://www.vertstudios.com/blog/google-hides-its-text/
Albert Wiersch, CSS HTML Validator Developer • Download CSS HTML Validator FREE Trial
User avatar
yoginetindia
Rank 0 - Newcomer
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 7:29 am
Location: New Delhi

Re: Hiding text and content from search engines

Post by yoginetindia »

Around year 2005 to 2010 we used to have invisible text using div tags and used to stuff keywords with <h1> and <h2> . At that time it use to work very effective and shows immediate results .

But now its different game altogether especially after series of Panda updates . Now don't try to over stuff hidden keywords or act smart by applying black hat SEO techniques you will get caught easily and removed from whatever ranking you were getting.

Even if you are not caught these tricks don't work now days because off-page optimization plays major role in determining the ranking
Hope reply helps

greetings
Manmeet
Yoginet