Text-indent=-9999em = Bad SEO ?
-
Since we weren't the ones who designed above mentioned website there is something we really don't understand. They have replaced images with text using css as below examples.
CSS --------->
div#logo { background: #fff url(../images/logo.gif) no-repeat 20px 0px; margin-bottom: 30px; } div#logo a { height: 148px; text-indent: -1000em; display: block; }
HTML ----------- >
******************
What my question is out of 100 scale how much does this affect SEO ? What if we keep H1 tags black without putting any text between tags ?
-
I understand your situation and am sympathetic. I am simply trying to offer you the information you are seeking.
If you are performing SEO work on a site, then it is your role to educate the owner / developer on the risks associated with the site in it's present condition and to make recommendations.
I am in the fortunate position where I can turn down a client. I would turn away a client who was unwilling or unable to make changes which involved black hat methods. I would not want my name associated with such a site, nor the headaches that are involved with such sites.
If you choose to continue working with the site, I would strongly recommend a written document where you advised the client of these issues along with the consequences and they have acknowledged (i.e. signed) the document.
As far as making other changes, you are still breaking the rules but are fixing some of the violations. The changes may or may not help you avoid a penalty.
-
This site wasn't designed by me . So I cannot change any code at the moment . This site uses alot of hidden texts . such as navigation , company logo etc . What If I just keep the image without putting any text between those tags . That why search engines don't find any text in HTML at least.
-
When any crawler visits your site, they can see all of your web code. They definitely can see your CSS and will de-index a site for this form of manipulation.
Blocking your CSS files would yield the same result. You are required to present the same code to search engines that you do for users.
It's called Black Hat SEO. The company you are trying to cheat is the world's #1 search company with 30+ billion in revenue last year. There are a million other websites trying to get away with cheating. This has all been tried before.
Even if you devised a brilliant new method of cheating the system, it is only a matter of time until you are caught and your site is de-indexed. You would lose 100% of traffic along with any revenue from organic search.
-
Well How Can I google find that Im hiding any text between tags unless one of my competitors report them ?
What If I block Stylesheet using robots.txt ?
-
If you hide any H1 tags or content on your site, you will surely be caught and penalized. It's just a question of time.
How costly will the penalty be? Log into Google WMT and see what % of your site's traffic comes from organic search. No imagine that being 0% for a few weeks that is will take Google to review your reconsideration request. Now weigh the relatively minor benefit this manipulation offers your site.
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
-
Why is hosting good for SEO?
I've heard a few people mention this now. I have seen hosting packages range from £5 to £1000 per month, and I understand that each comes with their own amounts of storage space, bandwidth and all. Now I understand that page speed is important to SEO and the type of hosting will dictate your page speed, but other than this why is hosting important to SEO?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moon-boots0 -
Is Snip.ly bad for SEO?
Hi, I'm using the software snip.ly, which allows me to add call to action into content I publish through social media. It's really powerful but I'm wondering how it can affect my SEO? Snip.ly now appears into my link report and its spam score is only 2, which is good. However I'm afraid that in the long term, it can be bad: links are created manually by the webmarketer Topics of this website are infinite the ancor is the same Your thoughts?..
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 2MSens0 -
Do authority brand (business name) anchor text links still drive SEO rankings?
i have a question about links....if you get a link from a really good authority e.g. bbc.co.uk - website but the anchor text for that link is only your business name e.g Moz and not a chosen SEO keyword target..do you still stand to gain in terms of your overall SEO rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CayenneRed890 -
Recommendation for Small Business SEO
I'm trying to find a company that can provide SEO services for our small business. We have a limited budget, $500 a month or less. We have staff that can do much of the work in terms of correcting content issues, changing content, etc. However, I'm not an SEO expert and we need someone to help us by understanding where we are now and providing ongoing guidance on what we should be doing to improve and also in helping with execution where possible and/or necessary. Can anyone recommend a company that might be able to help us with this within our budget constraints?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Careerbags0 -
Website Layout and SEO
Hi All, As a brand new user to Wordpress and having read articles and forum posts I have purchased Studiopress Genesis Enterprise Theme. QuestionWordpress like any traditional bespoke site can be written to incorporate variations of columns structures.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mark_Ch
What is the best column strategy or page layout strategy for SEO? Thanks Mark0 -
What next with SEO
I've been working on my site for over 2 years and have some very good links and now have a PageRank 4. My site has fallen down from page 1 to page 4 for 'Web Design London' which may be due to not putting much work into link building in the last 6 months. The site is pretty well optimised onsite but there are less that 20 pages of content. With time constraints in place because I have to run the business, would it be better to increase the content, seek out more links or outsource the work. Ideally I would do both but money and time restrict this. If I was to outsource, do you have recommendations and rough prices? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wpwebdesignlondon0 -
Are dropdown menus bad for SEO
I have an ecommerce shop here: http://m00.biz/UHuGGC I've added a submenu for each major category and subcategory of items for sale. There are over 60 categories on that submenu. I've heard that loading this (and the number of links) before the content is very bad for SEO. Some will place the menu below the content and use absolute positioning to put the menu where it currently is now. It's a bit ridiculous in doing things backwards and wondering if search engines really don't understand. So the question is twofold: (1) Are the links better in a bottom loading sidemenu where they are now? (2) Given the number of links (about 80 in total with all categories and subcategories), is it bad to have the sidemenu show the subcategories which, in this instance, are somewhat important? Should I just go for the drilldown, e.g. show only categories and then show subcategories after? Truth is that users probably would prefer the dropdown with all the categories and second level subcategories, despite the link number and placement.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | attorney1 -
E-Commerce SEO
Dear SeoMoz fans, I'm really glad to be a part of the community. Just have a quick question. I run a marketplace similar to eBay where users sell the products. I would like some suggestions on how to effectively proceed with SEO for an ecommerce marketplace of this type. Should I be proceed developing product review or product comparison landing pages and build links towards them as often suggested or should I consider alternative marketing methods? Looking forward to your replies.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | buzzmartseo0