Can you see this text: {this is called hidden text} ? Well Google can. And he doesn’t like it…

Can you see what’s between the brackets? Well of course not, it’s one point font with the color of the background. This is called hidden text. It’s a way as old as SEO itself of stuffing a page full of keywords so Google believes is it representative for a keyword when it is not. Although, it being so old, it’s very easily detectable. Usual ways of doing it are by changing the color of the font to match the background and usually shrinking it to an invisible size so you can stuff a lot of keywords in an incredibly small space.

A new take on the technique is by exporting the style elements into the CSS which is not usually indexed by Google. However, a new take on this is that Google also looks at the page from a user perspective and observes if any text looks… funny. And then you can get a serious penalty from Google that will take you OUT of the rankings… Other search engines don’t seem to be so affected by the CSS form of the hack but still be careful about this.

Legitimate uses of hidden text exist, such as hidden menu items and user content for people who don’t have flash or JavaScript enabled. Google assures us that these uses are not penalized but if you notice a sudden drop in rankings (more than 6 places) be sure to email a reconsideration report from your Webmaster Tools dashboard (the Google help file incorrectly mentions it as being under tools but it’s not…).

If you have any questions about these things or want me to check out your site for this stuff drop me an email at contact@eydryan.com and I’ll give you my two cents but since my time is quite little for more complex and time consuming tasks I’ll send you an offer. The lesser jobs are free. And don’t worry about it, just send me an email and ask me and we’ll see what you need.