Monday, June 15, 2009 at 2:22 PM
Want to know what's new on the Webmaster Central YouTube channel? Here's what we've uploaded in the past week:
Matt Cutts answered a few new questions from the Grab Bag:
And if you've ever thought about hiding text, here's one technique that didn't fool Google:
Feel free to leave comments letting us know how you liked the videos, and if you have any specific questions, ask the experts in the Webmaster Help Forum.
Matt Cutts answered a few new questions from the Grab Bag:
- What if a search for my business triggers "Did you mean?"
- Why do big brands rank so well?
- Are CSS-based layouts better than tables for SEO?
And if you've ever thought about hiding text, here's one technique that didn't fool Google:
Feel free to leave comments letting us know how you liked the videos, and if you have any specific questions, ask the experts in the Webmaster Help Forum.
6 comments:
Matt,
Wouldnt you agree that there are good reasons to hide some text, not for SEO purposes but for others. For example on my site, using wordpress, there is a plugin that allows users to download the video files that we put up using the plugin. Rather than modify the plugin which can cause all sorts of problems, we choose to hide the text that allows them to download it. We arent concerned that more sophisticated users can find it and we certainly arent worried about the search engines finding it but would rather that users dont take. the video content. Just an example. I guess my question is this - Are webmasters allowed to hide any text at all using css, even when doing it for other reasons? I have other examples of hiding text that I could provide. Thanks in advance for the explanation.
Anyone? want to make sure that I understand that google isnt penalizing any site with any hidden text. There are several legitimate reasons to hide some text.
I would have thought it makes sense for Google to not add as much value to any text that it thinks is hidden. If the visitor can't see the text then what value does it have for the visitor? And as such Google might reflect this.
As you say there are many legitimate reasons that webmasters may have to hide text, so it wouldn't make sense to penalise them - but it makes sense to not add as much value to that text.
Just my opinion.
Mark - Agreed completely. I especially think that links that are hidden need to be devalued, but to my point, there are reasons to hide text. I too, would want google to not add as much value to that text as most often, that is why it is hidden, when for legitimate reasons.
I guess what Im looking for, is some confirmation that Google is not penalizing sites, just for any hidden text. I haven't seen that confirmation and I would hate to see clients penalized just because they innocently put text behind an image so that it doesn't break the styles in IE, etc...
Say you have a tabbed navigation for a product and hidden tabs are divs with display none. Switching through tabs would be handled by a simple script that can no doubt be interpreted and run by a bot. The intent here is to put all product information on one single page instead of spreading it out over several pages, while offering users a sensible navigation structure that actually enhances their experience.
I would say this is a fair case for indexing hidden text.
Hi everyone,
Since over a year has passed since we published this post, we're closing the comments to help us focus on the work ahead. If you still have a question or comment you'd like to discuss, free to visit and/or post your topic in our Webmaster Central Help Forum.
Thanks and take care,
The Webmaster Central Team
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