Do search engines treat masked text differently than solid color fonts?
-
In my attempt to decrease page load times, I ditched my custom fonts for google fonts. I figured out how to apply CSS mask-image to make this blazing fast loading google font have a chalk texture, which was an awesome improvement over the 3-5 second load times for those locally hosted web fonts.
I've read that Google penalize a site for poor contrast ratios between the background and text, but do search engines go by CSS or do they somehow compare the actual rendered site as an image? Using CSS mask-image to give my text that chalk appearance does produce minor transparent patches in text.
So have I saved 3 seconds on page load just to have search engines knock points off for funky text issues? All input welcome. The temporary site is here. https://website-1b14f.firebaseapp.com/
Kevin
-
Great job optimizing your page load times by switching to Google Fonts and applying a chalk texture using CSS mask-image! Regarding contrast ratios, search engines like Google analyze the rendered site as an image, not just the CSS. So, even with CSS mask-image, the actual rendered text contrast is what matters. To ensure good contrast, visit DaFont, select a font, check its size, and use a clear and readable font in a suitable size (at least 14px) on your site to maintain a good user experience and avoid any potential SEO issues
-
Yes, search engines generally treat masked text differently than solid color fonts. Masked text, which refers to text that is hidden or obscured in some way on a webpage (such as using the same color as the background), is often seen as an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings and can result in penalties if detected.
Search engines like Google aim to provide users with relevant and valuable content. Masked text can be used in black hat SEO techniques to stuff keywords or hide spammy content from users while trying to manipulate search engine rankings. As a result, search engines are vigilant about detecting and penalizing such practices.
In contrast, solid color fonts, which are visible and legible to users, are considered legitimate and are not penalized by search engines. It's important to use solid color fonts for your content to ensure that it is properly indexed and ranked based on its actual value and relevance to users.
-
Hi thanks for helpful information use this font your text more attractive and beautiful use in comments , post, text etc this font is more help and share your thoughts in beautiful texts this times new roman font generator is very helpful.
-
Hi Christy,
Site launched! The e-commerce part is still under development but the basic site has been up a couple months. Masked text doing great! No issues whatsoever on the SEO side. Ranking super high still and load speeds are good. Service workers will be activated in the coming weeks as we build out our food delivery platform. So, I'll mark my question as answered. https://www.88k.com.tw
-
Site not launched yet but no warnings on any SEO tools. You can run this site through any tests you want and see. https://website-1b14f.firebaseapp.com/
Schema all good and AMP valid. Content coming up next... FYI this is not a public site and content will change as we test new designs and functionality.
-
Hi Kevin,
Have you launched yet? We'd love an update on this!
Christy
-
Thank for your thoughts. You're right that I can't find a single article on this anywhere, but I've never been conservative when I comes to SEO. I'm always looking to see what's possible. I concluded that since unsupported browsers will simply display the original text without the mask-image (Firefox/Opera), I'm going to assume google search bots won't care about the image mask either.
On the SEO side, this method shaves 3 to 5 seconds off load times, so that can't be bad. The effects are amazing, even on Chinese fonts. I'll report back after launch and post here.
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
-
Anchor Text is Showing as Blank
Hi SEO Experts, If I add link on Image without alt tag, Would Search Console be shown anchor text as BLANK?
Technical SEO | | Rajesh.Prajapati1 -
Adding /es version to google search console
I have a Wordpress site and we are using WPML for making it bilingual. The domain is: https://www.designerfreelance.net and for Spanish https://www.designerfreelance.net/es Do I have to add to Google search console the /es version? And the no www: https://www.designerfreelance.net https://www.designerfreelance.net/es https://designerfreelance.net https://designerfreelance.net/es and do I have to add the non ssl version? http://www.designerfreelance.net http://www.designerfreelance.net/es http://designerfreelance.net http://designerfreelance.net/es Thanks
Technical SEO | | Trazo0 -
Should a sub domain be a separate property in the Search Console?
We're launching a blog on a sub-domain of a corp site (blog.corpsite.com). We already have corpsite.com set up in the Search Console. Should I set up a separate property for this sub-domain in the Search Console (WMT) in order to manage it? Is it necessary? Thanks, JM
Technical SEO | | HeroDesignStudio0 -
Page Title Displaying differently on Google
Hi i am wondering why page title is display differently on google search. The combination of words that are being displayed on google are not on the page and the page title is simply "Camera Filters", however the page is showing as "our range of Camera Filters" (with the same capitalisation). http://awesomescreenshot.com/0cf4r09y27 I have optimised the age as best i can so it removes the OUR RANGE OF preface, however no luck. Any info would be appreciated. Cheers
Technical SEO | | andrewlos0 -
Target: blank. Does it make an SEO difference?
I've notice many sites MOZ included no longer use the target: blank attribute. I think that's what it's called. Basically when a link on your site opens a new tab in the browser as opposed to replacing the browser window you are in. Given that MOZ think of everything, I would love to hear opinions on this.
Technical SEO | | wearehappymedia0 -
Google Search Results Display URL
Our urls show as www.domain.com/getproduct.aspx?productid=48376 (url #1) in Google search results. When you click on the link and go to the site the URL is www.domain.com/product-name.aspx (url #2) I checked in Google Webmaster Tools (Fetch as Google) and there is a 302 redirect from url #1 to url #2. It also shows a Set-Cookie value, ASP.NET_SessionID= If we make it a 301 redirect instead, will the url displayed in Google search results be the url #2? We need to get rid of the Set-Cookie for crawlers correct?
Technical SEO | | Guy_Huyett0 -
Wordpress "incoming search terms" plugin
Hello everyone! newbie to SEO and have been trying to keep everything nice and ethical but I've seen on a couple of blogs today "incoming search terms" at the bottom of the blogs, then a bullet pointed list of search terms beneath it. So I had a quick search about the use of it and noticed wordpress has a plugin that automatic ally generates these "incoming search terms". I ask is this a legitimate plugin or will this harm my blog? I assume it generally will as I can't see this being much use for the audience, rather it would be 100% for trying to lure in search engines.
Technical SEO | | acecream0