In this part of the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Manual, Position Gold Ltd will be looking at the disadvantages of having hidden text on a website. This is seen as being very bad on the websites part as the search engines deem the website to be practicing black hat and unethical techniques. Below are some examples of some types of hidden text, that is commonly practicsed by unethical Search Engine Optimisation agencies and unethical websites.

Text the same colour as the background

By having background text the same colour as the background or a very similar colour as the background, many people will not see it, however the search engines will see it and will read the text and will add all of the keywords to the search engine index.

Hiding text beneath images and background layers

By having text, such as this spammy example below, on your website, you are allowing the search engine spiders to crawl your site and index your site according to your websites’ content. However, this is a black hat method of SEO and should be avoided at all costs. Those who do this to a website would not just have this on full show, they place an image over the text so that the user cannot see it, but the search engines can.

Here we see the image (below) that has been placed over the text in order to hide the spammy content.

The Z index allows you to add layers to a website and webpage, this lets you have a layer of content and then a layer or image on top of it, making the content invisible to the user, but visible to the search engines.

Hidden divisions

By having a division of content on the website, that is fixed of screen and cannot be seen is a very crafty way of hiding content from users but is also a good way of getting unethical content crawled and indexed by the search engines. The image below, shows an example of hidden divisions. The grey area shows the viewable area of a webpage (E.g. 600 pixels), however, the hidden division contains spammy content and although it cannot be seen on the webpage, it can be seen by the spiders.

Hidden Text is a bad thing for any website to have and should be avoided as much as possible, the risks are just too big, as the search engines do not take kindly to websites who are practicing unethical and black hat techniques.

Within this entry to the SEO Manual (Search Engine Optimisation) we will discuss the use of Hidden Text. Used by some SEO as a black hat method; it involves the disguising of text on a web page.

How is it disguised?

Text can be hidden in many ways; the most common being using the same coloured text as the background (e.g. white on white) and the use of style sheets to control certain elements for example where a div is within the layout of the web page (it could be off the screen or below all other visible elements).

Not all hidden text will be the same colour as the background; if it is very similar then search engines will still consider it to be hidden text. Black or dark grey is a good bet to stay clear of all potential hidden text risks.

How do I spot hidden text?

Two simple ways of spotting hidden text is to press ‘Ctrl+A’ to select all text on the page; or you can disable the use of style sheets which should enable all styling done in the style sheets to be turned off. Looking closely where there are large spaces where text could fit in is the best place to start and then work your way around the edges paying close attention to headers and footers.

Why does it matter if you can see it or not?

Search engines have become very clever and can determine when someone is trying to mislead the search engines and rank highly for something that they shouldn’t be. Hidden text can get a website to rise quickly within the SERp’s but the penalties when found out are far worse. There is no reason to use hidden text if you want to complete SEO properly with long-lasting results. The only case it should be used is when you allow a user to click a button and make it visible again e.g. a quiz question and getting the answer.

Why do people use hidden text?

Hidden text can hold many keywords without anyone seeing it except the search engines as they still read the HTML code. This means the densities of the keyword on the page are high and can sometimes lead to improved rankings.

Other ways of using hidden text include moving text off the viewable area of a page and bringing it back as the user wishes. This is the only form of hidden text that is acceptable and any other methods could cause penalty.

Summary

Avoid hidden text at all times if possible; if you’re asking yourself whether text could be considered to be hidden then you are probably too close and should change it for the better. There is no point risking penalties for something that is so simple to avoid.