You might have seen some text hidden behind the page with “Read More”. Have you ever given it a thought to how Google ranks such a hidden text over the non-hidden text?
Do you think, both the hidden and the non-hidden text are ranked in a similar fashion? If yes, you are wrong!
Google does not give the same ranking to the hidden and the non-hidden text. Let us now see how Google handles CSS and Javascript hidden text.
In this text, we are talking about the content CSS + Javascript based that is hidden inside the web page under “Read More”. This is the latest trend that most of the writers are following these days. They are using CSS or Javascript to load content once a visitor has clicked on the web page. This format can be used when a visitor is visiting any e-commerce site to get complete information about any product or clicking read more section of the same product.
This form of hidden text is not a problem with the Google or any other search engine. You can use Google or any other fetch tools that will help search engine to crawl through the hidden content. But this doesn’t mean that your page will be ranked in the similar fashion. Google never treats hidden and the non-hidden text equally.
For example, we take a web page that gives complete information about the American History. On the other hand, there is a page that mentions only a few lines about the American history and then “Read More”. No doubt, both of the pages will give same information but the weight of these pages will be different on the Google when it will crawl them.
What other things make difference between hidden and non-hidden web page content?
- The content that gives complete information will be ranked better despite the fact that the both of the content contain same sets of keywords.
- If the content is CSS or Javascript based, it will be considered less important by the Google. So, hidden form of text will reduce the importance of hidden content on a page.
- There are other search engines like Yahoo and Bing that do not differentiate between the hidden and non-hidden content. It is the Google only that takes both of these forms of content as different.
So, as an SEO expert, you mustn’t neglect the fact that the hidden content would be ranked lower by the Google. It will have less influence so it is better to include the entire content of the page rather than hidden content.
If you still want to include the hidden content you need to think creatively so that it can grab the Google’s attention at the first instance.
Wrapping Up
If you are using hidden text, you must focus on words and the phrases that you publish in the upper part of the non-hidden content. It should be eye-catching so that readers get to move out of your “Read More” page.
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