Does a "Read More" button to open up the full content affect SEO?

[ReunionMarketing]

As we've been refining our metrics for gauging whether or not a blog is effective -- if people are engaging with it -- one of the strategies we've seen (e.g. NYT, WaPo, Yahoo!) is "Read More." I've read a few articles with some who advocate using it and others who discourage it. Does anyone have any history adding "Read More" to their content and the effect it had?

[davebuts]

There was a great case study released by Reboot Online Marketing last week on exactly this topic: https://www.rebootonline.com/blog/hidden-text-experiment/

Basically, sites with visible text performed better; text in a textarea was treated as visible; and sites with text 'hidden' with CSS and JavaScript 'Read More' buttons didn't perform as well.

As Logan says above, Google is looking to give hidden content full weight with the release of the mobile first algorithm, but this algorithm hasn't been released yet and is likely not to be released this year: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-first-index-2017-23663.html

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

David

[LoganRay]

Hi,

Google used to weigh 'Read More', Tabbed, and accordioned content slightly less than immediately visible content. However, with the recently increased emphasis on user experience and their mobile-first mindset, they've since changed their stance on this type of content. More details including statements from Googlers can be found here: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-content-tabs-hidden-change-22950.html

[ReunionMarketing]

Thank you for sharing that thread!

[Alick300]

Hi,

I don't use read more link on my website. In below article few community members share their experience.

https://moz.com/community/q/content-hidden-behind-a-read-all-more-etc-etc-button

Hope this helps!!

Thanks