OMG! does Google really consider text-decoration:none as a hidden link?

[cbielich]

So I was reading this article today

https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/hidden-links/

Can setting a link to the same color as regular text and applying text-decoration:none really be considered a 'hidden link'?

[cbielich]

For the last 2 years my site tanked and I have tried everything under the sun to fix it and nothing ever changed it. I was going crazy. I just realized that I had this set on much of all my links on my site and I am wondering if this is what happened to me.

Did you say that you were effected by the same thing? Did you recover?

[TomRayner]

It certainly can.

The argument here (whether you agree with it or not) is that you would be trying to make the link blend in with the rest of the text.  You are, in essence, blending the link in and concealing the fact that it might be a link.  Google wants all the links to be visible and obvious.

I've had one example where links were deemed to be hidden because the CSS file of the website made the links appear in the same way as the normal text, same colour, decoration etc. I was pretty miffed by it, as it involved CSS changes which I'm never happy about, but it happened.

Hope this helps.