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Hi again,
It's common knowledge, that Googlebot doesn't love display:none style.
Do you guys think, that using it here is safe?
Szy.
Comments
Comment #1
szy CreditAttribution: szy commentedFor you, who can't see Signwriter in action - it produces the code below in heading,
where - I suppose - span style can be a risk:
Hm?
Szy.
Comment #2
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedNo I don't think so.
Here is a test for a Signwriter website we developed, check out these Google page results, http://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Awww.pepespaperie.com.au+corban
You can see where the Signwriter text is actually listed in the result summary correctly.
Comment #3
szy CreditAttribution: szy commentedThere is no 'display: none' style in source code of the site you gave me...
... :]
Szy.
Comment #4
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedGoogle seems to like to avoid answering the question as to whether or not having a legitimate hidden text duplicate of text that is in an image will be penalized. I'm under the impression that you wouldn't be excluded without further investigation but I wouldn't exclude the possibility that your rank could be reduced as a result of the crawl finding this hidden text.
If the
part is removed you also have the issue that the text in your image gets missed by Google.
Do you have any ideas for a solution?
Comment #5
szy CreditAttribution: szy commentedYou have alt and title values in img tag, so it won't be missed.
But the question is: does construction
<hx><img alt=text title=text></hx>
have the same value for search spider as
<hx>text</hx>
...? If answer is yes, then we don't need this span at all.
Honestly saying, I have removed this span from my site. I think it's better
to be safe with a little bit lower ranking, than not find my pages in Google
some day.
:]
Szy.
Comment #6
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedYes I think it does, which is why I provided this example http://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Awww.pepespaperie.com.au+corban
That site uses an older version of Signwriter which does not have the span tag feature.
Comment #7
szy CreditAttribution: szy commentedPlease, don't get me wrong! But... it looks strange for me.
First you said there is no reason to worry about getting banned in Google
beacuse you use it with display: none. But you haven't because...
... now you say you use older version of Signwriter without display:none...
So, you have exposed Signwriters users for ban danger not testing it...?
And now you say about value
<hx><img><hx>
again, pointing usto pepespaperie.com.au, but.... I can't see any little proof of Signwriter
there! There is no img in any
<hx>
tag and there are only two imageheadings, coming both from theme directory, so they don't seem to be
produced by module:
-> http://www.pepespaperie.com.au/sites/www.pepespaperie.com.au/themes/pepe...
-> http://www.pepespaperie.com.au/sites/www.pepespaperie.com.au/themes/pepe...
Again: don't get me wrong, but none of your words about your using
Signwriter was true... :] You give us proofs, which all have disappeared...?
Szy.
Comment #8
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedHere is an example page http://pepespaperie.com.au/about-us and the relevant HTML extract code below for your reference.
And to locate this page in Google search results, http://www.google.com.au/search?q=site%3Apepespaperie.com.au+about+us
Proof.
Comment #9
Jeff Burnz CreditAttribution: Jeff Burnz commentedI am yet to see an reliable proof that display: none or overflow: hidden or any other such technique (e.g. negative margins to hide entire divs) is penalised by any search engine.
I my experience SE's care more about content - if you understand this fully you'll quickly realise the futility of trying to spam SE's by hiding blocks of text.
In any regard the usage of these techniques is so ubiquitous SE's would find it far to difficult to differentiate between black-hats and white.
Personally I use it all the time, and have read numereuous posts and discussions about this on Highrankings and other respected SEO sites and everyone agree's, its just not an issue right now.
Sorry to post in a closed thread, I kind of stumbled on this.
Comment #10
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedHi,
I'm sorry to re-open this issue but I have to ask. When following google guidelines I view my pages in a lynx viewer. ( http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/lynx/lynx_viewer.php ) and for every page that I have the signwriter profile showing up on the text actually shows up 2 times in a row. For example, if the page title is "Drupal site" then the output to the lynx view would be "Drupal site Drupal site". So, not only does my title tag have these words but then the words are repeated 2x at the very beginning of the content. I have to say that if I were a bot that I would consider this spam. I love this module, there has got to be a way around this.
From Google:
Comment #11
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedWe could add an option on the signwriter profiles that allows you to toggle on/off the display none span.
Comment #12
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedHi,
Thanks. Perhaps that would do the trick. I'll stay tuned to see any patches or new release.
Thanks again!
Comment #13
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedWhen the new 6.x-1.0-dev version comes up today there will be a new option to disable the hidden span for each profile.
Comment #14
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedIt's great that you've addressed this, unfortunately I'm using the 5.x-1.5 version.
Comment #15
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedYeah, there are a few things now that are only available in the 6 version.
As soon as I get a chance I'll update the 5 version so it is in line with the 6 one.
Comment #16
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedLooking forward to it, Thanks!
Comment #17
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedRe-assigning to D5 so we don't forget to action this one.
Comment #18
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedAny update on this? Thanks.
Comment #19
jusyjim CreditAttribution: jusyjim commentedJust a little tickle for ya!
Comment #20
Agileware CreditAttribution: Agileware commentedThis has been fixed in 5.x-1.x-dev