Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis
      Moz Pro

      Enhance Keyword Discovery with Bulk Analysis

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing
      Moz API

      Access 20 years of data with flexible pricing

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    4. Does collapsing content impact Google SEO signals?

    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.

    Does collapsing content impact Google SEO signals?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
    3
    12
    10398
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • RosemaryB
      RosemaryB last edited by

      Recently I have been promoting custom long form content development for major brand clients.  For UX reasons we collapse the content so only 2-3 sentences of the first paragraph are visible.  However there is a "read more" link that expands the entire content piece.
      I have believed that the searchbots would have no problem crawling, indexing and applying a positive SEO signal for this content.  However I'm starting to wonder.  Is there any evidence that the Google search algorithm could possible discount or even ignore collapsed content?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • RosemaryB
        RosemaryB @EGOL last edited by

        Thanks EGOL.  Still looking for additional evidence about this.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Yoav-Blustein
          Yoav-Blustein last edited by

          well.. yup. I know many SEOs that do think that the collapsable are is just not important enough for google to consider it 😕

          good luck

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • EGOL
            EGOL @RosemaryB last edited by

            If I see a study, I'll post a link here.

            RosemaryB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • RosemaryB
              RosemaryB @EGOL last edited by

              Yep I completely agree with your response.  Unfortunately I'm in a position where I manage major enterprise accounts with multiple stakeholders (including some people are not educated in SEO).  Every major change we propose needs to be documented, cited and reviewed.  When making an argument for content expansion I would need to use thorough research example (Moz study, documentation on search engine land, etc).

              Anyway thank for taking the time to share your feedback and advice on this thread.  Although this is not the answer I wanted to hear (i.e. Google doesn't respect collapsed content)...however it's very likely accurate.  This is a serious SEO issue that needs to be addressed.

              EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • EGOL
                EGOL @RosemaryB last edited by

                Are there any case studies about this issue?

                Just the one that I published above.  The conclusion is... be prepared to sacrifice 80% of your traffic if you hide your valuable content behind a preview.

                I would be asking the UX people to furnish studies that hiding content produces better sales.

                We have lots of people raving about the abundance of content on our site, the detailed product descriptions, how much help we give them to decide what to purchase.  All of this content is why we dominate the SERPs in our niche and that, in many people's eyes, is a sign of credibility.  Lots of people say... "we bought from you because your website is so helpful".   However, if we didn't have all of this content in the open these same people would have never even found us.

                Nobody has to read this stuff.  I would rather land on a website and see my options than land on a website and assume that they was no information because I didn't notice that the links to open it were in faded microfont because the UX guys wanted things to be tidy.    I believe that it is a bigger sin to have fantastic content behind a clickthorugh than it is to put valuable information in the open and allow people to have the opportunity to read it.

                Putting our content out in the open is what makes our reputation.

                I sure am glad that I am the boss here.  I can make the decisions and be paid on the basis of my performance.  🙂

                RosemaryB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • RosemaryB
                  RosemaryB @EGOL last edited by

                  We are applying 500 to 800+ word custom content blocks for our client landing pages (local landing pages) that shows a preview of the first paragraph and a "read more" expansion link.  We know that most website visitors only care about the location info of these particular landing pages.  We also know that our client UX teams would certainly not approve an entire visible content block on these pages.
                  Are there any case studies about this issue?  I'm trying to find a bona fide research project to help back up our argument.

                  EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • EGOL
                    EGOL @RosemaryB last edited by

                    It was similar to a Q&A.  There was a single sentence question and a paragraph of hidden answer.  This page had a LOT of questions and a tremendous amount of keywords in the hidden content.  Thousands of words.

                    The long tail traffic tanked.  Then, when we opened the content again the traffic took months to start coming back.  The main keywords held in the SERPs.  The longtail accounted for the 80% loss.

                    RosemaryB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                    • RosemaryB
                      RosemaryB @EGOL last edited by

                      How collapsed was your content?  Did you hide the entire block?  Only show a few sentences?  I'm trying to find a research article about this.  This is a MAJOR issue to consider for our SEO campaigns.

                      EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • RosemaryB
                        RosemaryB @Yoav-Blustein last edited by

                        Yes that is a very legitimate concern of mine.  We have invested significant resources into custom long form content for our clients and we are very concerned this all for nothing...or possibly worse (discounting content).

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Yoav-Blustein
                          Yoav-Blustein last edited by

                          Recently i a had related issue with a top ranking website for very competitive queries.
                          Unfortunately the product department made some changes to the content (UI only) without consulting SEO department. The only worth to mention change they made was to move the first two paragraphs into a collapsible DIV showing only the first 3 lines + a "read more" button. The text in collapsible div was crawlable and visible to SE's. (also it's worth to mention that these paragrap
                          But the site lost its major keywords positions 2-3 days later.

                          Of-course we reverted the changes back but still two months later, the keywords are very slowly moving back to their "original" positions.

                          For years i believed in what Google stated, that you can use collapsible content if you are not trying to inject keywords or trying to inflate the amount of content etc. Not anymore.

                          I believe that placing the content under a collapsible div element, we are actually signaling google that this piece of content is not that important (that's why it is hidden, right? Otherwise it should be in plain sight). So why we should expect from google to take this content as a major part of our contents ranking factor weight.

                          RosemaryB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • EGOL
                            EGOL last edited by

                            About two years ago I had collapsed content on some important pages.  Their longtail traffic went into a steady slide, but the head traffic held.   I attribute this to a sign that the collapsed content was discounted, removing it from, or lowering its ability to count in the rankings for long tail queries.

                            I expanded the page, making all content visible.  A few months later, longtail traffic started to slowly rise.  It took many months to climb back to previous levels.

                            After this, every word of my content is now in the open.

                            RosemaryB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 1 / 1
                            • First post
                              Last post

                            Got a burning SEO question?

                            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                            Start my free trial


                            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.

                            • See all categories

                            Related Questions

                            • RyanD.

                              Does content in collapsible menus negatively affect SEO or featured snippets?

                              We want to confirm whether content in collapsible menus negatively affects SEO and/or featured snippets on Google. We're hoping to add a menu to answer some frequently asked questions and attract featured snippets, while also creating a positive user experience/not clogging up the page. Here is an example of the style of menu we're using now, the troubleshooting menu: http://www.lynden.com/help/index.html Appreciate your help!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RyanD.
                              1
                            • EdenPrez

                              Will I be flagged for duplicate content by Google?

                              Hi Moz community, Had a question regarding duplicate content that I can't seem to find the answer to on Google. My agency is working on a large number of franchisee websites (over 40) for one client, a print franchise, that wants a refresh of new copy and SEO. Each print shop has their own 'microsite', though all services and products are the same, the only difference being the location. Each microsite has its own unique domain. To avoid writing the same content over and over in 40+ variations, would all the websites be flagged by Google for duplicate content if we were to use the same base copy, with the only changes being to the store locations (i.e. where we mention Toronto print shop on one site may change to Kelowna print shop on another)? Since the print franchise owns all the domains, I'm wondering if that would be a problem since the sites aren't really competing with one another. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EdenPrez
                              0
                            • Bankable

                              How will changing my website's page content affect SEO?

                              Our company is looking to update the content on our existing web pages and I am curious what the best way to roll out these changes are in order to maintain good SEO rankings for certain pages. The infrastructure of the site will not be modified except for maybe adding a couple new pages, but existing domains will stay the same. If the domains are staying the same does it really matter if I just updated 1 page every week or so, versus updating them all at once? Just looking for some insight into how freshening up the content on the back end pages could potentially hurt SEO rankings initially. Thanks!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bankable
                              1
                            • jlo7613

                              Can Google read content that is hidden under a "Read More" area?

                              For example, when a person first lands on a given page, they see a collapsed paragraph but if they want to gather more information they press the "read more" and it expands to reveal the full paragraph. Does Google crawl the full paragraph or just the shortened version? In the same vein, what if you have a text box that contains three different tabs. For example, you're selling a product that has a text box with overview, instructions & ingredients tabs all housed under the same URL. Does Google crawl all three tabs? Thanks for your insight!

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jlo7613
                              0
                            • ydesjardins200

                              Help FORUM ( User generated content ) SEO best practices

                              Hello Moz folks ! For the very first time im dealing with a massive community who rely on UGC ( user generated content ). Their forum is finding a great deal of duplicate content/broken link/ duplicate title and on-site issue. I have Advance SEO knowledge related to ecommerce or blogging but new to forum and UGC. I would really love to learn or get ressources links that would allow me to see/understand the best practices in term of SEO. Any help is greatly appreciated. Best, Yan

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ydesjardins200
                              0
                            • Zanox

                              If a website Uses <select>to dropdown some choices, will Google see every option as Content Or Hyperlink?</select>

                              If a website Uses <select>  to dropdown some choices, will Google see every option as Content Or Hyperlink?</select>

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Zanox
                              0
                            • team_tic

                              International SEO - cannibalisation and duplicate content

                              Hello all, I look after (in house) 3 domains for one niche travel business across three TLDs: .com .com.au and co.uk and a fourth domain on a co.nz TLD which was recently removed from Googles index. Symptoms: For the past 12 months we have been experiencing canibalisation in the SERPs (namely .com.au being rendered in .com) and Panda related ranking devaluations between our .com site and com.au site. Around 12 months ago the .com TLD was hit hard (80% drop in target KWs) by Panda (probably) and we began to action the below changes. Around 6 weeks ago our .com TLD saw big overnight increases in rankings (to date a 70% averaged increase). However, almost to the same percentage we saw in the .com TLD we suffered significant  drops in our .com.au rankings. Basically Google seemed to switch its attention from .com TLD to the .com.au TLD. Note: Each TLD is over 6 years old, we've never proactively gone after links (Penguin) and have always aimed for quality in an often spammy industry. **Have done: ** Adding HREF LANG markup to all pages on all domain Each TLD uses local vernacular e.g for the .com site is American Each TLD has pricing in the regional currency Each TLD has details of the respective local offices, the copy references the lacation, we have significant press coverage in each country like The Guardian for our .co.uk site and Sydney Morning Herlad for our Australia site Targeting each site to its respective market in WMT Each TLDs core-pages (within 3 clicks of the primary nav) are 100% unique We're continuing to re-write and publish unique content to each TLD on a weekly basis As the .co.nz site drove such little traffic re-wrting we added no-idex and the TLD has almost compelte dissapread (16% of pages remain) from the SERPs. XML sitemaps Google + profile for each TLD **Have not done: ** Hosted each TLD on a local server Around 600 pages per TLD are duplicated across all TLDs (roughly 50% of all content). These are way down the IA but still duplicated. Images/video sources from local servers Added address and contact details using SCHEMA markup Any help, advice or just validation on this subject would be appreciated! Kian

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | team_tic
                              1
                            • nicole.healthline

                              Best way to de-index content from Google and not Bing?

                              We have a large quantity of URLs that we would like to de-index from Google (we are affected b Panda), but not Bing. What is the best way to go about doing this?

                              Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline
                              0

                            Get started with Moz Pro!

                            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                            Start my free trial
                            Products
                            • Moz Pro
                            • Moz Local
                            • Moz API
                            • Moz Data
                            • STAT
                            • Product Updates
                            Moz Solutions
                            • SMB Solutions
                            • Agency Solutions
                            • Enterprise Solutions
                            • Digital Marketers
                            Free SEO Tools
                            • Domain Authority Checker
                            • Link Explorer
                            • Keyword Explorer
                            • Competitive Research
                            • Brand Authority Checker
                            • Local Citation Checker
                            • MozBar Extension
                            • MozCast
                            Resources
                            • Blog
                            • SEO Learning Center
                            • Help Hub
                            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                            • How-to Guides
                            • Moz Academy
                            • API Docs
                            About Moz
                            • About
                            • Team
                            • Careers
                            • Contact
                            Why Moz
                            • Case Studies
                            • Testimonials
                            Get Involved
                            • Become an Affiliate
                            • MozCon
                            • Webinars
                            • Practical Marketer Series
                            • MozPod
                            Connect with us

                            Contact the Help team

                            Join our newsletter
                            Moz logo
                            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                            • Accessibility
                            • Terms of Use
                            • Privacy

                            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.