What are your thoughts on hidden text?

Hi guys,

I'll try and make this as short as possible... What are your thoughts on hidden text within a div with display none and visibility hidden values in the style sheet for search engine purposes?

I've heard mixed views about this method that you can be penalised for it etc but check this out:

A very popular web design company based in the area i live uses it and it seems to work, they have a full flash website and hide some text at the top of the page, see example below:

http://www.rippleffect.com/index.php

Take the style sheet off and see for yourself. Also, i've tried using this method myself on a website i run and so far it's proved successful: http://www.liverpoolinanutshell.com/ - hidden div at the top helps with keyword density etc

So what are your thoughts? Thanks in advance

 

wait some time. nothing happends from today ->tomorrow But the penalty will come, dont worry

 

Hey there,

My view on hidden text is do not do it

I think it is even in the google webmaster guidelines. People use to use the hidden attribute to cram keywords so they would get better rankings.

A few bad apples ruined that for everyone.

Like Zippo said, there will surely be a penality sometime for hidden text - especially if there are keywords in it.

Sincerely,
Travis Walters

 

Don't try to fool Google, because Google algorithms and technologies will catch you, sooner or later.

 

Another one who thinks they can fool Google

 

The benefit is small and the penalty can be severe. Its just not worth it.

 

Bad idea.

My experience watching serp's suggests that these types of sites never stick around. You would be much better off developing good on and off-page optimization.

 

Those guys are pretty bright. Just incase the spider doesnt know what you're trying to do, call the CSS ID "hidden" so it's completely obvious.

 

Google will always bust hidden text. They sit up at night cooking up ways to level the playing field and hidden text has always been at the top of the kill list.

 

A site can be penalized once Google detected any hidden texts in your site.

 

thanks for the comments and feedback folks

for the record, no, not another one who thinks they can fool google if you referring to me, i'm doing this for experimenting purposes and monitoring it regularly

the other design company site on the other hand has been online for years

 

Hiding your text is a blackhat technique. This can be lead to penalized your site.

 

i never go for hidden text as one day we have to face penalty. just try to get ranking by ethical ways..