Need suggestion to place longer content on products category page

[Alick300]

Hi All,

I wanted to place longer content on products category page, Currenty I am showing product listing first and then small description at the end of listing.I don't want to add longer content either bottom or top.

I want to make two tabs at the top of each category pages like Products | Informtion

In Product section (after clicking on it) I want to display all products listing & in Information tab (after clicking on it) 2-3 paragraphs of webpage content but I'm afraid If I will place the content in this way Google won't index content and my purpose of adding webpage content to target long tail keywords won't fulfill.

Please suggest me if you have any better idea & let me know what I am going to do would be good or not in SEO perspective.

Thanks

[TheWebMastercom]

I had a problem with hidden content on a review plugin I was using (they have since changed it) due to tabs.  I can confirm that none of the reviews were indexed that were behind hidden tabs.

So, no I would definitely not hide text now that Google doesn't see it.  If you want to test what Google will see and take into account, use the Google Render tool in Webmaster tools.

[SanjidaKazi]

Okay, I have read a lot of conflicting information about this.

The thread Tom has shared does seem to indicate Google is no longer indexing hidden text but these tests seem to show otherwise:  http://www.firstscribe.com/blog/searching-hidden-content-google-indexing/

Also check this page :  "As far as I have seen since the discussion died down, Google does index this content. Personally, I think it would be really odd for them to stop indexing it. Also, from the clarification Google provided, there was nothing to suggest otherwise."

Personally I don't think you will run into any problems if you use something like this.

[TomRayner]

Hi there

First of all - your logic is sound.  Trying to add additional, useful content to the product page could help its SEO performance.  There are obviously a number of other factors that will determine its success, but the principle logic is good.

Up until very recently, I would have said go for the solution you have proposed above.  It was a great way of getting useful information on the page - for both the search engine and the user - without having to interrupt or disturb the user journey.

However, things look to have changed within the last six months.  It began in September with this webmaster world thread saying that Google was no longer indexing content in onLoad hidden sections and was later confirmed in November with Google explicitly stating that Content In Tabs & Click To Expand May Not Be Indexed Or Ranked.

Whether that change is being fully enforced yet, I'm not sure - but if it's on Google's radar it may be wise to avoid this kind of onLoad content usage.

So that leaves you with having to present the content on the page straight off the bat. That can be tricky , as you run the risk of overloading the user.  But if you can keep the content concise and useful and can design the page accordingly, hopefully you can achieve it.

Hope the above links help.