Is hidden content bad for SEO?
-
I am using this plugin to enable Facebook comments on my blog:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/fatpanda-facebook-comments/This shows the comment in an Facebook iFrame. The plugin author claims it's SEO friendly, because the comments are also integrated in the WordPress database. The are included in the post but hidden.
Is that bad for SEO?
-
Providing an alternative way for search engines to access content that is not otherwise available to them, but is clearly available to anyone who "sees" the page is a legitimate use of the Display: None tag. Here is what Google has to say about it: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-hiding-content-17136.html .
-
Hm, I admit it's not so easy to explain the topic. Let me summarize it like this:
My site: WordPress
Issue: Regarding comments on a blog postComments: Usually WordPress uses it's own commenting system. Google can see the comments and this helps for SEO.
Comments on Facebook: To increase my comment rate, I am using a Facebook commenting plugin.
How does it work: Facebook uses an iFrame for comments, so they are visible in Front-End, but not in source code. But: The plugin is smart and takes those comments and puts them into the WordPress database. So WordPress shows the comments in the source code, but not in the Front-End. Only the Facebook comments are shown in the Front-End, but since it's an iFrame not in the source code.
So from Googles perspective the comments are visible in the source code, but they can't find them displayed in the front-end. The question is if that's a bad thing. The reason for me asking is, that some time back I read that lot's of black hats are using hidden content and that you should not do it.
-
Now I'm confused, you said "But it's not visible on front end side (except the Facebook comment iFrame)." Then "the hidden text is not inside the iFrame"
In the source code do you actually see the word iFrame?
-
In this case the hidden text is not inside the iFrame (WordPress comment database), and visible in the source code.
But it's not visible in the front-end.
-
Generally speaking anything in an iFrame will not be indexed for your site and therefore will provide no SEO benefit. So if the hidden text is within the iFrame this will have no positive or negative effect for your site.
-
That's a cool tool, didn't know that yet.
I used it and also checked in the source code. The hidden content is there. But it's not visible on front end side (except the Facebook comment iFrame).
Now is that bad?
-
A quick test for this would be to test your site in http://seo-browser.com and compare it to the same page source code (in browser right click 'View Page Source' or 'View Source' depending on browser) as I'm not sure what elements are being hidden
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
-
Duplicate Content
Let's say a blog is publishing original content. Now let's say a second blog steals that original content via bot and publishes it as it's own. Now further assume the original blog doesn't notice this for several years. How much damage could this do to blog A for Google results? Any opinions?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CYNOT0 -
Bad SEO Practice: in title tag?
Greetings, I just discovered that some of our content was produced with
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Eric_Lifescript
tags in the title tag. Example: <title>Diabetes Symptoms <br> In Women Over 40</title> My gut says this is bad for SEO, but I couldn't find a definitive answer on the web, so I thought I would ask the community of gurus here at Moz. 🙂 Thanks in advance for any reply. Kind regards, Eric0 -
Technical SEO
Hi Team, What are the points we are missing on our website from technical SEO front? http://www.giftxoxo.com/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Obbserv0 -
Advanced SEO question.
Hi, I manage and do the SEO for this site: www.aerlawgroup.com. If you Google "Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney", you can see I rank well (1st page). I have managed to achieve similar rankings for interior pages within the site: www.aerlawgroup.com/domestic-violence.html (Google: "Los Angeles Domestic Violence Attorney".) Here is my question. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get to the first page on Google for the search term: "Los Angeles DUI Lawyer", for the following interior page: www.aerlawgroup.com/dui.html. Is there anyway that I can pass the authority/ranking (not sure what to call it) that I have for www.aerlawgroup.com to www.aerlawgroup.com/dui.html so that internal page ranks higher for "Los Angeles DUI Lawyer"? I apologize if my question doesn't make sense. In a nutshell, I'm trying to understand if there is anyway to use the ranking I have for www.aerlawgroup.com to help me rank higher for Los Angeles DUI lawyer for the dui interior page. If not, are there any other suggestions anyone has to achieve a higher ranking? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mrodriguez14400 -
How Bad is it to Not Have a Home Page?
The site I'm currently developing is far different than any other project I've every worked on in that search traffic is likely to represent only a very small percentage of the total traffic. Because of this, I want to make sure I optimize the site for the people clicking from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc more so than the BIG G. I can't for the life of me think of a reason to have a home page other than for SEO purposes. I'd much rather throw the user directly into the experience than have him be distracted by a home page. At the same time, I'd like to salvage any search engine traffic that I can. My plan is to 301 redirect chucklebot.com/ to /funny-memes/SOME_RANDOM_IMAGE and then put the content of the current home page at /about. Does that kill any possibility of the site ranking well? Or can the subpages (eg /meme-generator) still rank well if they are properly optimized? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PatrickGriffith0 -
Aggregators outranking me for my own content
WARNING : The follow question is for an adult website. If you are at work, near children or are offended by such material, DO NOT CLICK Hey guys, This one has had me stumped for awhile. I operate www.deviantclip.com. Its a very old and trusted domain by google with loads of history. However, in the past year, Google has been giving me the cold shoulder. One major problem I've noticed is that I've lost all longtail traffic. Its even gotten to the point where aggregators are outranking me in google for my own custom titles and content. **Example A : ** Google Link 1 This search has my own sitename in the title and my site ranks somewhere on page 2 or further. **Example B : ** Google Link 2 This content originated from our site and has a unique title, yet we're dead last in the serps. I submitted my site for reconsideration a few times, and the outcome everytime is that Google tells me they have not applied any manual penalty. There are a TON of issues to adress with this site, but obviously, getting my own content to rank first is the primary problem I would like to fix. Your time and advice is greatly appreciated. If you need furter info, don't be afraid to ask.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CrakJason0 -
Is this duplicate content?
My client has several articles and pages that have 2 different URLs For example: /bc-blazes-construction-trail is the same article as: /article.cfm?intDocID=22572 I was not sure if this was duplicate content or not ... Or if I should be putting "/article.cfm" into the robots.txt file or not.. if anyone could help me out, that would be awesome! Thanks 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560 -
Do interstitials hurt SEO?
If you go to www.homeportfolio.com and click on one of the links in the footer. you'll notice you are presented with an interstitial. Can you tell me if that hurts our SEO and if we lose any link juice or suffer in any other way as a result of this linking method? my main concern is whether having anchor text that says "bathroom ideas" that goes to an interstitial that doesn't mention bathroom ideas is non-relevant... even if it refreshes 12 seconds to a page that is.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KaplanSEM0