Matt Cutts, Display: None and Read more

Marketing
1

Hi

My client has asked me to reduce the amount of text displayed on their home page because it pushes the more exciting content (product photos) further down the page.

The text does serve a dual purpose, to introduce the company and assist in its placing on Google/search engines but it is not spammy.

I’ve used a jquery script which uses this css to hide some of the text

.morecontent span {
	display: none;
}

I then found this post on Matt Cutt’s Blog where he says

“I don’t recommend that people use CSS to hide text…”

There follows a lot of comment on whether using css to hide legitimate content would get penalised by Google/other search engines.

My opinion is that if the text is not spammy and if the css helps the user engage with the website then it should not be penalised.

But my opinion doesn’t count for much of course.

Should I remove Jquery/css?

Thanks

2

I believe the problem only arises if the text is only visible to the search engines. If the text is fully accessible to site visitors via a “read more” link, or whatever, there should be no question of Google regarding it as spammy.

3

[font=verdana]If the text is present by default, but then hidden with Javascript and able to be shown again with Javascript , then this is unlikely to be seen as dodgy or spammy. This is a standard tactic on websites to avoid text overload without the need to load additional pages to get to the meaty content.

You’re unlikely to be penalised, although I wouldn’t like to guarantee that Google will index or use the text that you’ve hidden. Alternatives would be to set that item to a fixed height and put overflow:scroll; on it, or change the order of things so that the pictures appear before or alongside the text, if you’re worried about the hidden text being ignored.[/font]

4

Thanks guys for your prompt responses. I’m much less anxious about it now. :slight_smile: