Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How does a collapsed section affect on page SEO?
-
A client recently asked me whether a tabbed collapsed section of text that is expanded (i.e. revealed) when clicked, is an OK thing to do without negatively effecting SEO.
I told him that for starters, he may want to rethink why he would want to hide the text in the first place (this is not an FAQ type scenario). The reason has to do with the aesthetic of the page.
Anyway, aesthetic aside, any thoughts on whether a collapsed (hidden from view) negatively affects on-page SEO?
Thanks.
Stephan -
As long as the search engine can read all the text, I see no issues. Modern designers put text in multiple tabs or partially hidden until expanded all the time these to create a better user experience. It is generally only hidden from the user using css and is fully visible in the code.
-
Hi Stephan,
Presuming the expand/collapse thing is done properly, it should be golden. You'll find a lot of sites use this approach when they have multiple pages of content, e.g. a product page with specifications, reviews, technical details, etc.
I do this on my travel website. A great way to test to see if the initially-collapsed content is being seen and indexed by Google is to take a block of text from the collapsed section and search for it in double-quotes.
Here's an example: search for "At the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort you can discover the sparkling magic of the lagoon". You'll find my site there at #3 (Visual Itineraries), along with the other 1000 websites who've also copied the resort's description straight from the resort's website (yeah, I really shouldn't do this). So much for Google's duplicate content detection when it comes to text chunks...BUT I DIGRESS. That content you see is on the More Info tab.
Now, on to what "done properly" means:
- each tab should be in a separate div
- assign all divs a class which has style="display:none;" EXCEPT the currently selected tab
- have onclick handlers for the tabs that set all of the divs' classes to the display:none class, and then set the newly selected tab's div class to one with display:block or display:inline
And not done properly would mean something like changing the text of a div with Javascript onclick()....because Google won't see that text in the Javascript. It's got to be in the HTML.
That's about it. Not so tricky, really. And works well both for usability (no roundtrip to the server, not even an Ajax fetch!) and for SEO (lotsa yummy content on a single page for Panda).
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Seeking Advice on Improving On-Page SEO for my Website
I'm looking for some expert advice on improving the on-page SEO for my website, CCTV Camera Installation. Despite following best practices, I feel that my site isn't performing as well as it could be in search engine rankings. Here are a few specific areas where I'd appreciate some guidance: Content Optimization: I've ensured my content is keyword-rich and valuable to my audience. Are there any advanced techniques or tools that can help further optimize my content? Meta Tags and Descriptions: I've written unique meta titles and descriptions for each page, but I'm unsure if they're as effective as they could be. What are some tips for crafting compelling meta tags that improve click-through rates? Internal Linking: I've set up a basic internal linking structure. How can I enhance this to better distribute link equity and improve user navigation? Page Load Speed: While my site's load speed is decent, I'm aware that even minor improvements can have a significant impact on SEO. Are there any specific optimizations or tools you recommend for speeding up my website? Technical SEO: I've covered the basics like XML sitemaps and robots.txt files. Are there any advanced technical SEO practices that I should be aware of? Here is the link to my website for your reference: https://www.acssllc.ae/ Thank you in advance for your help! Best regards,
On-Page Optimization | | Htdbf
Israr Khan0 -
Landing page separate from product page
Hello there, I have a wordpress website with a woocommerce plugin. I have 4 landing pages that describe my products and at the end of the pages, I have a CTA to my product page. is it bad for SEO? my website: https://relationadviser.ir
On-Page Optimization | | Aaron.be1 -
Should we rename and update a page or create a new page entirely?
Hi Moz Peoples! We have a small site with a simple site navigation, with only a few links on the nav bar. We have been doing some work to create a new page, which will eventually replace one of the links on the nav bar. The question we are having is, is it better to rename the existing page and replace its content and then wait for the great indexer to do its thing, or perm delete the page and replace it with the new page and content? Or is this a case where it really makes no difference as long as the redirects are set up correctly?
On-Page Optimization | | Parker8180 -
Home page and category page target same keyword
Hi there, Several of our websites have a common problem - our main target keyword for the homepage is also the name of a product category we have within the website. There are seemingly two solutions to this problem, both of which not ideal: Do not target the keyword with the homepage. However, the homepage has the most authority and is our best shot at getting ranked for the main keyword. Reword and "de-optimise" the category page, so it doesn't target the keyword. This doesn't work well from UX point of view as the category needs to describe what it is and enable visitors to navigate to it. Anybody else gone through a similar conundrum? How did you end up going about it? Thanks Julian
On-Page Optimization | | tprg0 -
What is on page links?
Hi - i would like to know exactly what an on page link is? i understand the linking system however cant work what exactly what an on page link is? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | OasisLandDevelopment0 -
Analyzing word count on page SEO
Hey guys quick question, when I am analyzing/ doing word count for a particluar key word and I want to make sure that i am no where near Keyword stuffing, does Google consider the alt and title tags keywords of images as part of the KW count when looking for on page Keyword stuffing. For example. let say I have a page that i just created with 1000 words. and Only 2 of the words are my target Keywords. Then, if i add a picture and add the keyword to both the alt and title tag and description of the image, does google now consider the "page" to have a total of 5 keywords? Also, a lot has changed recently since penguin and panda, is there a good rule of thumb for what ratio to stay under as far as keywords to text.?
On-Page Optimization | | david3050 -
SEO for Japan
Google and Yahoo are the two major search engines in Japan. You can search using Western characters, and you often see English language results with Japanese (Chinese) characters next to them. As I don't speak Japanese, how do I approach SEO for my Japanese-language site? would appreciate any experiences and educational sources on the topic.
On-Page Optimization | | KnutDSvendsen0 -
Creating New Pages Versus Improving Existing Pages
What are some things to consider or things to evaluate when deciding whether you should focus resources on creating new pages (to cover more related topics) versus improving existing pages (adding more useful information, etc.)?
On-Page Optimization | | SparkplugDigital0