Hidden Text in Websites - What counts as hidden text?

[miranda]

There are many kind of text that are considered to be hidden text (spam). Some of them may be created by spammers. Innocent Web designers might use this kind of text by mistake, however. The following types of text should be avoided.

Color matching
The simplest method that spammers use to create hidden text is to make the font the same color as the background. Search engines can easily detect this type of hidden text.

Below is an example in which the background color is black bgcolor="#000000" and the font color is black this is hidden text. Just double click on the black rectangle to see the text:

Often, spammers also consider background images. They will set the image color to be the same as the font color. This is a little harder to detect.
Software can easily detect hidden text created by using the color matching scheme. Humans can also detect it, by selecting all or highlighting the whole page. In Internet Explorer we can use Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A to highlight the entire page. Highlighting all the text will change the text's color so that it no longer matches the background color. Another way to detect hidden text in Internet Explorer is to double click to select a word, and triple click to select a complete paragraph.

Noscript tags
Noscript tags can help us to hide the text in a tag and only display it when the user's browser will not view scripts. This technique can be used to gain ranking, but text hidden in noscript tags carries much less value than normal text.

Hidden Text in Websites - Hidden text is spam
The idea of loading a Web page with keywords can be bad for the visitor but it can improve page ranking in the search engine results. This technique actually worked on the first generation of search engines. It was heavily exploited by the adult entertainment industry, however, which forced search tools to punish users of hidden text. Today, every major search engine considers hidden text to be search spam. Many search engines can now detect the use of hidden text, and often remove offending pages from their database or lower a site’s positioning when their spiders detect it. Using hidden text is a good way to get your site blacklisted.

In the search engine world, spam is defined as the manipulation of a Web page to give it an artificial boost in the search engine rankings. Generally, search engines themselves define what they consider to be search spam -- so spam is whatever the search engines say it is. Each of the major search engines provide specific guidelines describing what webmasters should and should not do to their Web pages in order to achieve a better search engine ranking.

Hidden Text in Websites - Use professional Web designers
There are a number of free ways to market and advertise your site. The biggest way to market your site is through the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN). Depending in part on the professionalism of the company you choose, your Web design company may submit your site as part of their services -- but most designers don’t build your website with the correct important internal components needed for high rankings in search engines, such as meta tags. You may have a great looking site, but if it doesn't even show up in the search engines, you lose a huge source of free marketing.

Some Internet market methods can get your website blacklisted. There are a few ways to get high rankings, but some marketing companies use cheating methods such as hidden text to get you there. Search engine computers and software have become smarter, and will disregard a site found practicing these methods.

You should use professional Web designers in order to get a good looking and high ranking website. Professional Web designers know more about the code that appeals to search engines. These include meta tags, keywords on each page, limited use of Flash and hidden text, screen tips for pictures, input Alt tags, heading tags for special text, links, and specific title text. Search engines and directories like Google or Yahoo read these tags, words, and phrases, and then your URL is placed on their lists. The better it’s done, the higher your rankings. AA professional Web designer usually needs time to learn this information; choose someone with significant experience in this field.

Conclusion
Search engines consider hidden text to be spam. Instead of looking for ways to cheat the search engines, webmasters should be looking for ways to improve their content and their site's usability, and seek back links. Those will all improve their rankings and their users' happiness with their site. By doing these and some other detailed techniques you should rank quite well. But just remember you will not score a high ranking overnight; it takes time and serious work.

[Nickysemilo]

thanks miranda... that was an useful information... keep posting informative stuff to help the web users..

[storymasup01]

Hi. This is very informative. I am a web designer but i didnt know that web crawlers read hidden text as spam. I may have to redo my coding and design concepts. Great help!

[Kavi]

Color matching
The simplest method that spammers use to create hidden text is to make the font the same color as the background. Search engines can easily detect this type of hidden text.

[leviinazz]

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