Hey guys, I just have one quick question. Let's say I set the same color of the text(content) and links, is this considered as hidden link? Thanks and regards.
no it is not black hat. but yes, if you make the color of your links or your content same as background, then it is 100% black hat SEO
NO specification has been reported on this issue from good authority like Matt Cutt. So you can't be sure.
You must be amazed . not amzed. Do it, then check how quickly google ban you. check other people comments here on it Here what google say about it Hidden text and links Print Hiding text or links in your content can cause your site to be perceived as untrustworthy since it presents information to search engines differently than to visitors. Text (such as excessive keywords) can be hidden in several ways, including: * Using white text on a white background * Including text behind an image * Using CSS to hide text * Setting the font size to 0 Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66353 shailendra think twice, before you pass comment on some one. I am offering seo services, and provide results to 100's of people. Peace.
i c there is a dispute here whether it is black hat or not. people who say it is black hat obviously didn;t read OP's question carefully and quickly jumped into conclusion. same color text + same color link = not black hat same color background + same color link = hidden link = blackhat you copied some good resource, just need to read what OP is asking. its not the same color background that is in question, its the font color of text and the link color OP is talking about
Having your link text be the same color as your normal text is ABSOLUTELY NOT hidden text. There is nothing hidden about it. The text is plainly viewable to everyone who views the page. Hidden text cannot be seen. It's using white text on white background or black text on black background or using CSS to keep a <div> hidden. But what you are asking is neither hidden text nor is it black hat. Nothing in Google's Webmaster Guidelines says your link text has to be a different color from the text around it. It only has to be viewable.
Can't say it is purely Black Hat but it could be treated as deceptive or misleading by Google as your visitors will find a different thing than the SE.
This is very nice said, i was going to reply the same but well expressed in mathematical form by sultanofseo , So please follow this without any pain of reading other posts. I couldn't stop myself in appreciating sultans mathematical approach of explaining, WELL EXPLAINED MATE ! I fully agree on what he says yes its not black hat if same color text and link
WRONG. Google and the user sees EXACTLY the same thing... Both see the text and the link... only the text and the link have the same color... So what if the foreground is black and the background is white for BOTH a text and a link? There is nothing deceptive or misleading about this... Why does the link text have to be blue and the content text black? Makes no sense what you're saying IMO. I challenge you to go read every single line of Google's webmaster tools and show me ANYWHERE in there where they say that the text of your content has to have a different foreground/background color combination than the link text of your hyperlinks... You cannot do so... I'm a top contributor at Google and have both read and responded to literally thousands of questions there and I've never seen a Googler or another top contributer there that would say this is somehow a violation of G's webmaster guidelines, that it's deceptive in any way, or that it would somehow be considered black hat.
If the text links similar to the color of the background, It can not be seen be the visitors. So it's considered as the hidden links. will be get banned by Google whenever they catch you.
read the answer given by sultanofseo above and you think thrice about what you are speaking Mr. SEO Expert. Moreover, take a print out of the the page you have posted of Webmaster tools and try to get it convert in your native language so that you can understand it better
yes its one type of black hat seo and some time in your page u put many links so you page design look like not good that time you have only one option give same color of the link
Its black hat technique. Your site may banned by soon. so please don't do that types of promotion technique
Nice one johngfcarey , I'm not making fun of what he/she has said but rather she explain it well. Hidden Text is considered as one of the techniques in black hat. And once you tried it and google recognized it then it's kaboom your site is dead