Comments on: Hidden H Tags by Google

By: berto

berto — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:37:47 +0000

I think the key item noted above may be more true than we want to admit, when you search for “search engine”, it’s hard to find Google. Or if you look for the offending hidden text, “search results”, Google is showing up around 3rd place. Given that the header and accompanying copy used to be visible on the page, it is more than likely a mistake that it would be hidden with no navigation elements to show it. Maybe their automated agents caught the mistake and auto-corrected their results before they were able to take it out.

By: IrishWonder

IrishWonder — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:05:16 +0000

Hehe good call Andy – but I guess I just don’t bother with the rat race that ranking for stuff like “SEO Consultant” is

By: Weekly Search & Social Coverage: 11/24/09 | Search Engine Journal

Weekly Search & Social Coverage: 11/24/09 | Search Engine Journal — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:12:44 +0000

[...] Hidden H Tags by Google – funny stuff here.. Google using some hidden tags? Yikes… say it ain’t so! Go get ‘em Irish! [...]

By: Andy Beard

Andy Beard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:05:45 +0000

Negative offset is great for header graphics, as long as you are not doing it deceptively, Google is most likely going to be fine with it on any site.

Then again some SEO consultants have the first link to their home page from their blog with the anchor text “home”

By: IrishWonder

IrishWonder — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:29:14 +0000

@Hetllwyd: oh-kay, Google guys ever heard of audio stylesheets then?

>Stop looking at SEO benefits in everything
- well I’m an SEO so what should I be looking at? and as for benefits – I don’t really see any benefits here, more like some clueless HTML coding…

@Terry Van Horne: could be a way to catch some uncanny scrapers – but anybody who’s done any amount of scrapign would know what to scrape and what not to scrape.

By: Singapore SEO Consultant In Malaysia

Singapore SEO Consultant In Malaysia — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:32:10 +0000

That could be the reason why Google is not at the top when you search for “search engine” at Google.

By: Terry Van Horne

Terry Van Horne — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:55:23 +0000

Hmm… if your CSS doesn’t have the class that isn’t seen… but if you were to run it through a program and render it with the CSS… clear evidence of scraping results.

By: Shahid

Shahid — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:35:47 +0000

Is it possible that Google only display the tag for text based browsers and mobile/pda devices? when not using the standard stylesheet….

By: Schoonzie

Schoonzie — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:52:40 +0000

I think it’s probably an accessibility thing. It’ll be read by screen readers and it’s pretty useful if you can’t see the layout of the page.

Have a look with CSS off and it makes a bit more sense.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:04:06 +0000

I think it’s probably a presentation element that’s used elsewhere (e.g. mobile; print styles), but easier to hide here than deliver different mark up to different platforms.

Or maybe they’re about to make their SERPs indexable and the world is going to collapse into a black hole of arbitrage