Posts Tagged ‘algorithm’

Hidden text and Google

Google’s policy on hidden text and its effect on rankings is fairly well known, and has been for a long time. Still, many websites continue to test Google’s search algorithms by finding new ways to ‘hide’ text within their page.

The appeal of hidden text is understandable. While keyword saturation helps to boost your appeal to search engines, the casual viewer of your page is likely to get tired of seeing the same terms repeated over and over and it decreases the usability of the site.

Having hidden text, however, means a big risk that your site will be deemed ‘untrustworthy’ by Google and other engines. Too many links on each page can also put your site at risk. Google’s official word is that anything that a search engine can see but a human visitor cannot is suspect, and may result in your site being removed from Google completely.

Google’s official stand

The search engine’s official stand is that certain things are out. Some of these are obvious: white text on a white background, text behind an image and setting font size to zero are all obviously devious.

It’s difficult to know where Google stands on specific uses of hidden text and links. Some companies have managed to successfully appeal a removal from the Google index. Susan Moskwa, a member of the support team at the Webmaster Central Google Groups, has stated that if you have replaced text with an image of the same text in order to improve user visual experience, you haven’t done anything wrong. However, using the Fehrer Image Replacement Technique, which is essentially the same thing, could prompt a web-bot to kick you off the index. If you do have hidden text, it’s best to consult an expert search engine optimisation company such as SEO Consult for advice.

What to do? Although the result might be the same, your intention when working these effects into your website counts. Hiding something within your website solely because you think a search engine will eat it up is really not the best thing to do. Although every website openly courts Google with search engine optimisation and content management to help in its internet marketing, the point is that all of these tricks are in the open for viewers to see as well.

Not everything hidden is seen as bad, and Google does acknowledge that some sites with Flash plugins, JavaScript and some types of images are not intentionally breaking the rules. Google recommends that you review your site for hidden text and links, and remove anything that is not easily viewable by a human visitor. Again, not exactly crystal clear (what about mouseovers?) but they do provide the best guideline: if you’ve hidden something because it’s meant only for a search engine, you are in the wrong and need to review your search engine optimisation approach.

Hiding text is highly likely to get your website banned from Google’s index completely and to reverse this is difficult, so be sure to conduct your internet marketing in conjunction with advice from a professional company such as SEO Consult.

Google, You and SEO

Change is something the human race does not always welcome. We get set in our ways, even the bad and nasty habits; we are used to them so let’s keep it that way. The internet has revolutionised how business is done. This of course brought new opportunities for the unscrupulous and amoral amongst us to try their tricks to cheat for quick profits.

Recently there has been loud squawking and lamenting about the new changes Google is putting into practice. The SEO world was up in arms about the new trust factor coming into the equation. It is worth thinking about exactly who the individuals are who most argue against this change. Google does not always have very flattering things to say about the practices of SEO.

Change is needed

Google’s intentions are to see all online businesses and websites take a proactive approach with branding. They want to root out people who cheat the system and cut corners. When unethical practices are used to manipulate high ranking, the search results turn to chaos that is making searchers mistrust everything. Too many people have taken the unscrupulous path to generate as much revenue as possible. That is when you get websites that are smothered in affiliate ads that are of no help to anyone.

Ethical SEO efforts have an important role to play in all this. They can be compared to the scavengers that sift through the garbage piles and clean up the mess. What is left behind for Google is clean search results to work with. What is happening is that websites need more and more of a trust factor to be able to rank high in the Google search results pages. The brilliant thing is that this trust factor happens naturally when a diversified online approach to branding is used.

New mindset

The aim is to develop the same mindset to online advertising as applies to offline advertising. Offline marketing involved paying for any advertising; this included TV and radio. There is no scope for cutting corners in offline advertising. This is what the search engines are trying to achieve; you do it by the book.  You pay for your advertising and you promote you business in all areas of the internet. Too many website owners put ranking above everything else and for some this becomes an obsession. They will do anything, even if it is unethical, to get that coveted ranking.

Quality above all else

The search engines are evolving and making life very difficult for anyone involved in black hat optimisation efforts. The trust factor has now been added and the algorithms will keep changing and tweaks will be added to rid online marketing of the parasites. What this all boils down to is to keep your focus on the website visitors. It is all about their user-experience. The much-used saying of content is king is fact. Stay away from giving visitors garbage in the form of keyword stuffed content that is meaningless. Keep your website providing quality information and make sure your website is completely scam-free. This will ensure that all the factors fall into place.