Hidden text

I find a lot of webistes having text hidden in their home page (having same backgroungd olour)
Is it not a spam?

Most of the major search engines warn against doing that in their guidelines. It may cause a page to be penalized.

Absolutely right, I see that in many popular sites which are doing really well but they do have high PRs and good results.

I see many domains having hidden text and page redirections to other domains and still they are indexed in search engines. Then what is the point that the search engines give these guideline?

Can someone tell if we can really use hidden text directly or any other technique and will the search engine algorithms agree for that ?

You can use any method you like, but cross a line* and the SEs will drop your site like pigeon poo.

Just do what you think is right, and watch your direct competitors. Don't copy them though, but try to learn from them (their success and/or mistakes)

* the line lies further and closer, depending on the subject you're working on. For example: smut and gambling sites seem to be able to get away with a lot of dubious tricks, but in less competitive areas using so-called "black hat" stuff is seriously frowned-upon.

indexed <> not penalized
ranked <> not penalized

Would the pages rank better than they do now without the "offending elements"? I myself have never tested hidden text, but I've seen evidence that image ALT attribute keyword stuffing was detrimental to rankings, so I imagine the same could be true for hidden text.

I agree with Bernard. A web page could reach a good position not thanks to its spam features but despite its spam features.

No i dont think that the pages would have ranked better without the offending elements.

Ya the ALT tag is ok to practise. And is there any other way to put text in place for images other than ALT tag?

I'm not sure I understood your post correctly, but I try to avoid making conclusions based upon opinion where testing could yield an answer.

The image ALT attribute shold be used for its intended purpose IMO.

Bernard, I was asking if there is any other way to put text in related to images other than ALT tags? and as you said, things which can be tested, should be.

You can use the title attribute, although I don't believe it's widely spidered yet.


The SE's vague guidelines can be difficult to interpret. However, I would say that if you are using hidden text to affect your ranking, that could be construed as bad. If you are using hidden text for a menu system, or rollovers, or some other UI, design, or useability reason, then that should be ok.

ok the title tag is good idea but i am also not sure if search engine spider can see these. Will test and tell here. And hey i never go for hidden text becaue i am really afraid if the SEs will put the site in spam. Never mind if not there in the top position, but will never dare to be out of Search Engines.

AFAIK - the title attribute is still not read by bots (unless they do it secretly). My pages don't rank for their specific (exotic) title attribute texts...

And maybe that's a good thing. Title attributes are specifically intended to provide info (=pop-up hints) for all human web users. Apparently they're not for bots ;P

yup, the bots cant read that

And as the ethics say, make sites for users and not search engines. and as you say its good idea to use title tage for the sake of users.