Is Googlebot seeing text in my 'Read More' bar and could they even be penalising me for it?
-
Hi guys.
Our web developers have put a read more bar that contains the on page SEO text for our webpage. By default, the read more bar is not expanded and you cannot see the text within. If you click 'Read More', the box expands and the text is shown on the page.
I was wondering if googlebot is seeing this text at all - it's really important that it does because it contains all the on-page SEO text. I also wondered if this type of approach is still considered 'white hat'? If it's not, could google be penalising us for it?
Thanks,
-
Thanks for your input Frederik.
I've used the website you mention and it look absolutely fine.
-
Thanks for the reply. It's not just keyword spam but correctly written content so I think it's all ok.
-
Good answer David.
-
Hi Carl
To answer your question I would need to have a look at the site. If the content hidden behind the read more button is in the HTML and then hidden until Read more is clicked its probably gonna get indexed. To be sure you can hide it in the CSS instead of in the HTML. If the text is added from inside the javascript and injected into the DOM its probably not going to get indexed.
You can also use this free tool to see the page as Google sees it:
http://www.seobrowser.com/ (Use the simple version its free)
Your second questions concerning if you would be penalised for it depends on just what is behind that Read more button? If its information that is valid to the user and a natural part of the site you should have no problem.
Hope this helps you on the way'
Have a great day
Fredrik
-
1. Can googlebot see the text?
Login in to Google Webmaster Tools, go to Health > Fetch as Google This will show you exactly what they can see.
2. Could you be penalised for it?
If it's just keyword spam, yes. Make sure the content isn't there just for bots, but is useful for visitors and you should be fine,
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
With generic product like screws, for example what is best practice when writing descriptions? It's tough writing unique content for something when the only difference is lengths
With generic product like screws, for example what is best practice when writing descriptions? It's tough writing unique content for something when the only difference is lengths
On-Page Optimization | | Jacksons_Fencing1 -
Does Google's algo look at all traffic mediums with regs to onpage metrics or only organic traffic metrics?
Hi folks, This is something I've pondered for a while. I've ask a couple of Googlers but no reponse yet and I don't I'll get one! In your opinion, do you think Google looks at on page metrics like bounce rate for example from all traffic mediums (organic, paid, email, social referral etc etc) or they only look at on page metrics from organic traffic? I'm not talking about direct correlations from other mediums. I'm only talking about when a user lands on a website, do the actions they take matter with regards to Google's search algo no matter of the referring medium, or do Google only look at onpage metrics on visits which came to the site via organic search as a medium. Option 1 As a very simplified example: Google gives extra weight in the SERPs to website A which has an average bounce rate of 30% from all mediums compared to website B which has a bounce rate of 50% from all mediums. Option 2 Google gives extra weight in the SERPs to website A which has an average bounce rate of 30% from organic traffic only compared to website B which has a bounce rate of 50% from organic traffic only. I'm not sure if anyone outside Google has the answer/proof of this but was keen to get other people's thoughts. If you think the also uses one or the other, can you give an insights/proof of one or the other? For me it would make sense for them only to use onpage metrics from sessions which came from organic seach traffic, but who knows! Merci buckets, Gill.
On-Page Optimization | | Cannetastic0 -
I'm starting an online training school and need some advice.
Hey Moz'ers, I'm looking start an online training website. I feel there is 3 options: Self hosted LMS (Moodle, Litmos etc), Sass solution (Academy of Mine, Pathwright etc) Or DIY with Chargify type payments/subscriptions. To get started it is easiest to use one of the software as a service options. I get to use my own domain but everything else is via the software provider. **What potential problems can you see if/when I decided to do my own self hosted option? Will I be able to redirect the pages to my new site and pass along my accumulated page rank with minimal disruption or am I missing something catastrophic? ** Any advice would be helpful.
On-Page Optimization | | danlovesadobe0 -
Content hidden behind a 'read all/more..' etc etc button
Hi Anyone know latest thinking re 'hidden content' such as body copy behind a 'read more' type button/link in light of John Muellers comments toward end of last year (that they discount hidden copy etc) & follow up posts on Search Engine Round Table & Moz etc etc ? Lots of people were testing it and finding such content was still being crawled & indexed so presumed not a big deal after all but if Google said they discount it surely we now want to reveal/unhide such body copy if it contains text important to the pages seo efforts. Do you think it could be the case that G is still crawling & indexing such content BUT any contribution that copy may have had to the pages seo efforts is now lost if hidden. So to get its contribution to SEO back one needs to reveal it, have fully displayed ? OR no need to worry and can keep such copy behind a 'read more' button/link ? All Best Dan
On-Page Optimization | | Dan-Lawrence0 -
Chrome Add-on - see text version?
I used to have a chrome add-on to see the cached text version of a website. I lost it and was wondering if anyone knew an alternative or a good add-on Cyto
On-Page Optimization | | Bio-RadAbs0 -
Internal Link Title and Anchor Text Question
So, I am kind of a newbie with all of this stuff, so please bear with me! If you have a chance to look into the domain it's www.noip.com I have checked the internal followed and 301 links. It seems like it is pulling in all of our navigation a funky way. all of those link have no data for the title and the anchor text is Home, Contact Us, Forgot Password?, ETC. Is this correct? I have tried to look into the way other websites are doing it and it seems wrong. I tried to talk to my developer, but he is not so sure. Do we simply need to make more copy on our site that has internal links within the copy with anchor text that is for keywords that I would like to be ranking for? Like Managed DNS? and then that page goes to the managed DNS page? Or what? Sorry if i am not being totally clear. Any help and advice is 110% welcomed!!! Natalie
On-Page Optimization | | vwnatalie0 -
I have home tab in 2 menu's which calls the same hompage article. How do I get over this
I am getting duplicate content for this article. I need 'home' tab on two menus.
On-Page Optimization | | rajendraksh0 -
My blog title is getting added to my post title and I can't figure out how to remove it
Hello everyone, I am sure most of you guys know how to do this. I am finding that when my posts are listed in google, my blog title is added to my post title. 2 questions. 1. Is this hurting my rankings because the blog title is diluting my keywords making it look like I have a huge title? (the on page optimizer is dinging me for this. 2. I use a self hosted wordpress blog with the all in one seo plugin. Does anyone know how to remove the blog title from being appended to the post title? I thought I could do that in all in one seo by checking the rewrite title box and just having it say %post_title% but that didn't fix it. Also it was doing it before I checked that box as well. Any other ideas to try? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | FastLearner0