Hidden Links...how can google not detect this?

I am baffled at how google's spider can not detect a hidden link if a link is inside a div positioned outside the range of an actual page.

Take this site for example: http://www.lissaexplains.com/index.shtml

if you view the source at the very top you will see html as such:

<style>#ads, #ads a{font-size:8px;position:absolute;margin-top:-50px;}</style>
<div id="ads"><a href="http://www.cool-juice.com">free alltel ringtones</a><a href="http://www.freealtonia.com">free verizon ringtones</a><a href="http://www.the-movie-library.com">free movies</a><a href="http://www.musfiesta.com">free mp3</a></div>
<script>document.getElementById('ads').style.top='-50px';</script>

HTML:

The style is being set for #ads to an absolute position outside the website boundaries, and then applied to the div containing those links. This website also has this same technique applied throughout the page.

I am shocked that google does not automatically look for this, or maybe it has detected it and has decided to allow it.

 

Yes that is a brutal example of a hidden link. It is pretty tricky coding for Google to detect though. If we applied the position style right in the div tag it would probably be easier to detect, but he made a point of changing the style outside of the div. To detect this Google would have to jump back and forth in the code. By trying to detect this they may wrongly penalize someone who has a legitimate reason to move a div way off screen.

 

Surely sooner or later this will be noticed by Google, don't out think big G didn't know that. This kind of shortcuts will not surely lasts.

 

I think google will be find and give a negative point to site.

 

I think google will find it in the future.

 

I only want to say...
"Google is Grandfather and we are his Grandson"

Now a days Google is also crawling your stylesheet.

 

google can easily find a style thats applied to a div...a style position such as this one should throw up a red flag and should be added to a list for at least a manual review.

 

Im sure Google will soon find them and penialise them for this, only a matter of time. Google knows everything. Hidden text is a major penalty, which will end up giving that website the "Page 6 Penalty"

 

Hello...

One must be careful anymore as some scripts offer to remove there link
for a set price then you find it still there "hidden within the script"

We just found a hidden link in ours after checking this thread and why i commented..

laterz
malcolm

 

Hidden links = 1 way ticket to be banned

 

There are legitimate reasons to have both hidden divs and divs that are located off screen. If google were to really slap sanctions on every such use we might as well say good-bye to both artistry and interactivity on the web.

 

Couple of stinky fishes in whole ocean... who cares.

 

Submit a spam report from the Google Webmaster console. There's a specific drop down for hidden links.

 

Anything that violates Google's TOS will eventually meet into bad consequences for your website. I say play legit and not spend your time on what if's and stick to their TOS. Getting banned from the big G will cripple your website by a lot.

 

and I guess I'm just baffled why you care soo much about what lissa does.

 

You can't hide any hidden links in google spider and also to other search engine spider. Spiders can still see that links as long as it's a live link.